Mobile Reading Revolution

Promoting literacy globally is something that many foundations and organizations worldwide have been working towards for quite some time. These organizations offer services, grants and donations to libraries and schools in developing countries.  Organizations such as Librarians without Borders, Room to Read, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the International Reading Association, to name a few, have managed to make great contributions to students who would not have had access to books otherwise.

  "Literacy is one of the key elements needed to promote sustainable development, as it empowers people so that they can make the right decisions in the areas of economic growth, social development and environmental integration. As contentious as issues around education around the world can be at times, there is little debate about the fundamental importance of literacy to most human endeavors." (Trucano)

As we all know, technology is rapidly changing how we are teaching and how students are learning.  This technology is not limited to only developed countries but much to my surprise it has had a major impact in developing countries as well.  Mobile technology is rapidly changing communications in Africa.  According to the United Nations, more than half the continent’s population has a mobile device (Watson). Worldwide, the UN data shows that of the seven billion people on earth, more than six billion now have access to a working mobile phone.  Even people living in remote areas are beginning to have access to the internet with their mobile devices.  

With this large number of mobile devices a “mobile reading revolution” has been happening. Unesco conducted a year- long study and discovered that children and adults are increasingly reading multiple books on their phones. (Flood) The study found that “people read more when they read on mobiles devices, that they enjoy reading more, and that people commonly read books and stories to children from mobile devices”.  (Flood)

I was surprised to read that so many people in Africa and probably other developing countries on other continents are reading so much on their mobile devices.  Since many are not able to afford to purchase a computer or get proper internet connection, mobile devices are the next best thing.  EBooks cost substantially less than a printed book and each device can hold many eBooks. These devices can easily become digital libraries, in the palm of their hands.  

There are also organizations helping developing countries access eBooks and reading material that are relevant to the readers.  African Storybook is an example of this.  They provide eBooks that are culturally relevant in English and in several African languages. Worldreader is another foundation that provides mobile devices and eBooks in developing countries.  A new initiative of theirs is to provide access to solar panels so that mobile devices can be easily charged.  One Laptop Per Child is also trying to connect under privileged children with laptops.  They are successfully running in many countries worldwide including developed countries.

Doing this inquiry has made me think about my library and the lack of mobile devices.  I have toyed with the idea of having eReaders available to students but I worry about how to manage the devices and the purchasing of eBooks.  I see a few students bring their eReaders to school but I wonder how many actually have a mobile device that could be used to read eBooks. 

I think the first step would be for me to get acquainted with eReaders.  EBooks don’t appeal to me since I love the feel of a book in my hand however kids seem to enjoy them and the technology might even motivate some of the reluctant readers.  Would love to hear of your experience with eReaders in the library and how they are managed.

It is an exciting and hopeful time for students in developing countries!  I look forward to sharing this inquiry with my colleagues and our school social justice club.  Awareness is an important starting point...

"It is not a hyperbole to suggest that if every person on the planet understood that his or her mobile phone could be transformed – easily and cheaply – into a library brimming with books, access to text would cease to be such a daunting hurdle to literacy." (Flood)

Works Cited

Flood, Alison. ""Mobile Reading Revolution" Takes off in Developing World." The Guardian. 23 Apr. 2014. Web. <http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/23/mobile-reading-revolution-unesco-study-phones-africa-subcontinent>.

Trucano, Michael. "What We Are Learning about Reading on Mobile Phones and Devices in Developing Countries." Edutech. The World Bank, 12 Sept. 2014. Web. <http://blogs.worldbank.org/edutech/psd/reading-mobile-phones>.

Watson, Tom. "Going Mobile In Sub-Saharan Africa To Save Lives - And Change The Future." Forbes Magazine, 11 Feb. 2015. Web. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomwatson/2015/02/11/going-mobile-in-sub-saharan-africa-to-save-lives-and-change-the-future/>.

Meeting the ICT Needs of My School

Leadership

Before starting my position as teacher librarian, I did not realize the importance of teacher librarians having a leadership role in the school.  When I was a classroom teacher, the teacher librarians were always very open and willing to collaborate but they did not take on a leadership role and present new resources to the staff.  I think to be an effective TL you need to be open and willing to collaborate but also you need to share the information that you have acquired and guide teachers into exploring new things.  That being said it has taken me about 4 years as a teacher librarian to feel confident enough to lead a mini pro- d session at my school.  I have done many other things that were more discreet such as setting up reading programs and organizing fun literacy activities but trying to get teachers to buy into the new resource I was presenting was another thing.  I hardly consider myself an expert and so why would teachers listen to me?  After reading this article I can see the value and benefits of having teachers teach others in the school.  This creates a community of learners and sharing from all staff members and becomes normal and expected.   The article also provides many interesting ways of conducting professional development within the school staff. 

“When a community comes together in such a way that teachers respect and trust each other enough to see themselves as teachers of teachers and as learners at the hands of other teachers, they are able to create an atmosphere where anything is possible.”

 - See more at: http://www.educationworld.com/a_admin/admin/admin459.shtml#sthash.6WcGA32E.dpuf

Lighting a Spark

I have always enjoyed doing professional book clubs and I would like to try and set one up this spring.  Instead of simply presenting the new book to the staff, I had the opportunity to organize a professional development day with 5 schools for Non-Fiction Writing Power presented by Adrienne Gear.  Adrienne Gear is a fabulous presenter and my staff really enjoyed the workshop. This was the spark and motivation that I needed to get them on board.  I feel that they will be more open to participating in a book club now that they have gained some insight into the book.  I realize that it is not always possible to invite the author of a book to speak to the staff however finding a way to make the book relevant to each teacher is vital in getting people motivated to read and implement new strategies.

This article suggests doing class observations as part of the book club.  This allows other teachers to see in the classroom what teachers are doing and then discuss afterwards how the lesson went and how each teacher could adapt the lesson to suit their needs. This is another way of building a community of teachers learning together.

    

I think it would be interesting to adapt the book club format by creating an “app of the month” club.  Where an app is introduced and at the end of the month each teacher shares how they used the app in their classroom.  Seeing examples of how others used the same app could be helpful.    

Meet Them Where They Are At

An important thing that I learned is to meet all teachers where they are at in terms of technology.  Every teacher has a different level of comfort and experience with technology and you need to gently guide them towards new things.  Teachers already have a lot on their plate and the last thing they need is to feel overwhelmed.  I found doing a demo lesson or a small project using a new app or website was the best way of getting teachers on board.  I managed to get the grade 4 teacher to do use Pixton and create fun comic strips and the gr. 1 teacher used Animoto to display work.  Now these teachers use these apps every year.

Easy access

I created a library website with many links to websites that can be used for teachers and students.  The teachers appreciate having a list of websites easily accessible.  It is a constant work in progress but my goal is to customize it as much as possible for each teacher.  I plan on creating specific links to curriculum topics for each grade.  My hope is that the teachers would be able to use these links to support their teaching or have these links available to students for their projects. I also like the idea of sharing my Delicious site with others once it's up to date. 

Keeping them informed

I would like to create a monthly newsletter for the teachers.  Here I would highlight new books, interesting websites I have come across, pictures of projects or activities done at the library, etc.  In the past I have used Smore to create attractive flyers and I think this could be a fun way of showcasing new resources.  At staff meetings I could then go through what was on the monthly flyer so that I could explain further, do a demo or answer any questions.  I’m also enjoying the weekly video updates in this class and this could be an entertaining way of keeping teachers informed.  Simply sending them a link to a new app is not going to amount to very much.  

Collaboration

Finding the time to collaborate with teachers has been a struggle.  When I did manage to find time, I felt like they didn't quite understand how collaboration works.  Most just told me what they wanted me to cover and how I should go about it.  I was quite frustrated and I found myself taking a step back and not initiating collaboration as much.  In the future I would like to try using collaboration more as professional development for the teacher.  We would choose a topic or technology that they would like to explore and I would teach lessons and demos with their class to help them understand how this resource could be used.  Sometimes I get the impression that the teachers don’t want me to me to interfere with their curriculum and they prefer that I teach skills that can be used in different aspects of the curriculum.  This would become a more 1:1 pro d that I could custom tailor to their needs and then support the implementation of the resource.

 

Once all staff members understand that teacher librarians are not simply the keepers of books then great strides can be made in sharing new resources.  This article is a great case study of how teacher librarians can revolutionize how students learn and how they can become true agents of change, digital leaders and remain relevant.

Personal Learning Networks 101

Since this is my last course in finishing my TL diploma program, this inquiry could not come at a better time.  On one hand I am so happy to be almost done the program but at the same time I will miss the constant flow of new information and sharing among colleagues.  Throughout my years of teaching I have not done much outside of my school community to connect with others.  I have relied on professional development at the school level and occasionally at the district level and often times it was not directly related to my work as a teacher librarian. 

It is now time for me to take charge of my professional development and to make a plan of how I can stay connected.  As the teacher librarian I am often asked to keep the staff in the know when it comes to literacy and Web 2.0 technologies.  Creating my own personal learning network (PLN) has now become essential to my job. 

During my online search I came across websites that provide tips and strategies on how to develop a successful PLN. Below are links to a selection of such websites:

Personal Learning Networks for Educators: 10 Tips

Learning to Network and Networking to Learn

Create a Personal Learning Network

20 Tips for Creating a Professional Learning Network

After gaining an understanding of how to begin my network I have come across many great ways of staying connected.  Below I have listed some of my favourite and sustainable ways of developing this network.

1.       Blogs- There are countless blogs that teachers contribute to on a regular basis.  The number of blogs that are out there can be a little daunting however now that I know how RSS readers work it would make reading and managing them much easier.  The links below list some of the top teacher librarian and teacher blogs.  I also managed to find a local blog in SD 41.  One frustration in looking for local blogs is that many of them had great information but have not been updated in a number of years. 

99 Best Blogs for School Librarians

Top 50 School Library Blogs

Burnaby Teacher Librarians

I have had to create and contribute to my own blogs for courses and I enjoy having my thoughts, discoveries and interesting links in one location but I don’t feel that I will likely have the time to continue contributing to my own blog right now.  I do hope that at a later time I will be able to find the time to create either a personal learning blog or one for the school library.   

2.       Twitter- Before this course I had no experience with Twitter.  Since I knew so little about Twitter I had never even considered this as being a way to stay connected with teachers. I have heard great things about Twitter from classmates and a number of websites suggested that starting with Twitter would be an effective way of making connections.

I found these sites that explained how Twitter works and thorough lists of education hashtags

Top Twitter Hashtags for Librarians

Educational Hashtags

The Complete Guide To Twitter Hashtags For Education

3.    There seems to be a wealth of online education networks to help teachers stay connected.  On these networks you can find information on any given topic and easily access communication with other teachers.  This would be the easiest way to begin my PLN and to quickly establish some connections.

Classroom 2.0

Teacher Librarian Ning

edWeb

Educator's PLN

4.       Another area for me to explore would be to create a professional learning network with other TLs in my school board.  Apparently in the past the TLs were meeting regularly.  It seems that there is still an interest in meeting but no one has stepped up to organize the meetings.  We currently meet only twice a year.  Ideally I would like to meet every 4-6 weeks to share new resources and ideas.

This video helped me remember the importance of sharing with others.  When creating my PLN it is important that I use the network to learn but also to contribute.  This sharing of my learning will ultimately guarantee the success of my PLN.

After exploring all the different avenues of staying connected, I’m excited to explore these sites and to build my own PLN.  Creating and growing my own network is something that is going to take a bit of time and work to establish.  By taking small steps and exploring new technologies to feed my network I feel that I will be well on my way to remaining relevant and becoming a professional resource for my school.

Fostering a Reading Culture in My School

         Creating a reading culture has been a big focus since I started my role as teacher-librarian.   Since there was so much to learn about being a TL and I knew so little this was something that I could start making improvements upon immediately since I had done a lot of literacy activities as a classroom teacher.  I’m always on the lookout for new activities and once again I got swept away for hours searching online for different types of activities to promote reading. Getting students excited about reading truly is the best part of being a TL!

         

        When thinking about what I have done or plan on doing to create a culture of reading there were so many aspects to think about in terms of the library and throughout the school.  After finding a great website by the New Zealand NationalLibrary, I decided to organize my thoughts similarly using these categories: reading friendly environment in the library, school-wide reading culture, student reading interests, reader friendly policies in the library, school staff as readers and boys and reading.   I have tried to highlight my successes and goals in each category.

               

Reading Friendly Environment

It is so important for students to feel comfortable coming to the library.  It’s much easier to create a warm and inviting library if the space is properly organized and appealing.  When I first started at my current school the library environment was lacking in personality and warmth.  I have managed to make a few changes but I still have much more to do.

Success:

• Added colourful carpets, posters and cushions
• Created a reading nook
• Added low shelving for younger students
• Open most days after school and during the lunch hour

Challenges and Goals:

• There are plans to expand the library in the near future and I hope to continue creating a reading friendly environment with more nooks and comfortable seating. 
• Rearranging the shelves will also help open up the space and improve sight lines.
• I also need to work on better signage so that students can find their way around the sections
• Create interesting displays to showcase books and themes

School-wide Reading Culture

Creating a reading culture should not be exclusive to the library.  All classroom teachers and administration should be encouraged and take part in activities to promote reading.

Success:

• Reading for pleasure- All classroom teachers have structured reading activities and evaluations however they also strongly encourage reading for pleasure on a daily basis.
• Host successful book fairs
• Special literacy activities such as decorate the classroom doors based on a book, new word day, poem in your pocket day, literary dress-up day
• Author visits- We invited Eric Wilson to come and I cannot believe the buzz that it created.  For about 3-4 months students were fighting to take out his books.  His books were especially appealing for the reluctant boy readers.
• Author studies
• Readers are Leaders- Similar to Battle of the Books. It is a trivia type competition open to grades 5-7.  TLs in the Catholic School system select 6 books from the Red Cedar nominations and students try to read as many books as they can over a 3 month period and then they participate in the competition.  
• DEAR
• Poetry Month in April
• Primary classes use the same leveled reading program in class
• A nice selection of guided reading books for all grades
• Using Daily 5 as a way organize literacy periods
• Supportive admin- open for any kind of suggestions and activities

Challenges and Goals:

• To have a mix of activities that are ongoing and not only a single day
• Read alouds by different staff members- I started reading the Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease  and I have been inspired to encourage more read alouds.
• Family literacy activities
• Incorporate more technology in school activities

Student Reading Interests

Making sure that students have a varied selection of books that they are interested in is a major factor in having a library that is frequently visited by all students.

Success:

• Have a student wish list that I am constantly ordering from and I make sure to reserve the book for the student that recommended the book
• Trying to be aware of what kind of books students are reading and what is new and popular.  Students are often happy to find a new book that has a long wait list at their local public library.

Challenges and Goals:

• Finding a way for students to stay interested in reading French books in older grades
• Buy books that are appealing to all students and to have more cultures represented in my book purchases

Reader Friendly Policies

This is something that I struggle with on a regular basis since being a TL.  I’m constantly having internal battles between the literacy teacher inside of me who wants students to take out “just right books” and the TL inside of me who wants to encourage students to choose any book they want so that they enjoy what they read even if I know it is definitely not at their level.  This is an even bigger problem in French Immersion since it is very difficult finding books that are not too difficult for students to read but are still interesting. I’m currently encouraging students to take out one book that is roughly at their reading level and the other book can be any book.  I would also like to start encouraging parents to come and take out books before or after school.  This would hopefully be a way for parents to become more involved in what their children are reading and encourage more reading at home.

School Staff as Readers

It is so important for teachers to model that they are also readers.  If they are not readers than it is important for them to rediscover books and not just textbooks!  I like the idea of having signs for each teacher to indicate what they are currently reading.  I would also like to encourage teachers to read books during silent reading instead of marking or prepping for their lessons.

Boys and Reading

Before I became a TL I was a primary teacher for 8 years.  All my students loved going to the library and they always left excited about a book they had chosen.  One of the biggest shocks for me was to see the boys in the intermediate grades have very little interest in reading.  Every year I put aside a decent amount of my budget to purchase books specifically targeting boys.  I have noticed many of the boys that were always getting Garfield or Tintin comic books are starting to explore other books and becoming excited about choosing books or looking for the next book in the series.

Success:

• Last few years it has been a focus of mine to purchase books that will interest boys.
• I also try to read or become familiar with books that I think boys will enjoy because they ask more often than girls for suggestions

Challenges and Goals:

• Highlight the books for boys on shelves to make it even easier.
• When purchasing books for boys buy more non-fiction books since they tend to enjoy these books more than girls

This post is longer than I had intended but I found it very useful to take the time and to really think about what I’m doing and what still needs to be done in the library and throughout the school.  There really is nothing more important than making sure that students develop a love for reading.  My main goal and hope as a TL is to have every student discover that amazing book that will change how they see books.

Resources and Inspiration:

"Creating a Reading Culture - Hands on Literacy Conference Nov 2012." Slideshare. Web. http://www.slideshare.net/SusanLaMarca/creating-a-reading-culture-hands-on-literacy-conference-nov-2012.

"Creating Readers." National Library of New Zealand- Services to Schools. Web. http://schools.natlib.govt.nz/creating-readers.

"Getting Boys Hooked on Reading: How Can Digital Media Help?" Reading Rockets. Web. http://www.readingrockets.org/blog/55245  

Philpot, Chelsey. "How to Create a Culture of Reading." School Library Journal. 25 Nov. 2013. Web. http://www.slj.com/2013/11/events/ala-conferences/how-to-create-a-culture-of-reading-aasl-2013/#.

Reading Review Part C- Research Synopsis

Inquiry based learning is a term I would often hear but I did not fully understand what it looked like in the classroom and in the library.  After taking the time to research online I’m beginning to understand how this shift in teaching can be used to engage students across the curriculum.

            I began my research by looking for scholarly articles and I found a few interesting articles however most were not suited for elementary school or focused mainly on science based projects.  Since I was not entirely satisfied with my article search, I will need to continue my search and I hope to find articles that cover other elements of the curriculum as well. 

My website search was more successful and provided me with resources that explained inquiry based learning in a step by step approach as well as focusing on particular aspects of inquiry based learning such as classroom management.  Some of the better resources were teachers who created videos and explained their own personal experiences with this teaching method.  As I mentioned in my previous post, the difficult part was not finding good, easy to use information, the problem is sifting through all of it. The websites also provided a variety of sources for several subject areas.  The best site for this was galileo.org.  This is a site dedicated to inquiry based learning and there are many practical resources for mathematics, social studies and science.

            I was surprised to even find a few sites that had some information about doing inquiry based learning in a French Immersion classroom.  Inquiry based learning can be difficult to do in French Immersion classes especially in primary grades since students don’t always have the necessary vocabulary or reading skills in the French language.

Throughout my exploration I have been able to piece together many different elements that make up inquiry based learning.  Now that I have a clearer picture of what it looks like, sounds like and feels like, I feel less intimidated by it and more comfortable sharing this information with my colleagues.  Many of the resources showed a realistic approach to implementing inquiry based learning.  They highlighted the difficulties and struggles that teachers faced but the evidence of it making a difference with students was so strong that in the end I feel that it is worth the extra effort it takes to switch how I teach in the classroom and in the library.  As I mentioned before, my end goal is to create a website that I can share with my colleagues with easy to use links and videos.  I feel that with this deeper investigation I have a nice collection of resources that cover the necessary aspects of inquiry based learning.