Navigating the Shelves: 8 Tips for First-Time Librarians
November 15, 2023
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November 29, 2023Unlock Student Success: How Librarians Utilize ALEX to Collaborate with Teachers
Librarians & Teachers Unite to Boost Reading Outcomes
WORKING TOGETHER BENEFITS EVERYONE. When we fully utilize our librarians, there are many ways they can contribute to student success—and, often times, be a tremendous help to teachers. With a more extreme leaning on tech, there are many new ways that librarians and teachers can unite to help boost learning, create more engaged lessons, and just find more joy in teaching. Here are 9 ways librarians and teachers share the essential role of improving reading.
1) Resource Management & Utilization
Librarians are experts in information literacy and can help teachers and students navigate the vast amount of information available. Collaborating with librarians ensures that teachers can make the best use of resources, both print and digital, to support their curriculum.
Browse
/BROWSE
Librarians help teachers (and students) locate books on every topic and help target those rich narrative nonfiction books that boost reading outcomes.
Slideshow
/BUILDER >> SLIDESHOW
Slideshows on topics that relate to curriculum—even on a moment’s notice—can be coded and emailed as a looped to be shared in multiple classrooms.
2) Curriculum Support
Librarians can align library resources with the curriculum, providing supplementary materials that enhance and enrich classroom instruction. They can suggest books, articles, and multimedia resources that complement specific lessons and learning objectives.
Explore Builder
/EXPLOREBUILDER
Explore Builder allows for librarians the opportunity to create unlimited Explore Panes. This one features AR Levels 0-9+ in both Spanish and English—and kids will see books in their reading level.
Other Links
/SEARCH >> Author::McAnulty
In ALEX, librarians may also enhance the reading experience by the resource. In ITEMS, they can enter links to videos, articles, author readings, and bonus interactives that will enhance the book experience.
Search McAnulty or Jason Reynolds.
3) Promoting Information Literacy
Librarians play a key role in teaching information literacy skills, such as how to evaluate sources, conduct research, and cite information properly. This collaboration helps students develop critical thinking skills and become more adept at navigating the increasingly complex world of information.
Explore Builder
/BUILDER > Explorebuilder
District Resources. ALEX also allows you to share resources that make essay writing easier, can connect to GimKitInk or other resources that will help teachers turn students into journalists and help them connect to real-world experiences.
Explore Builder
/BUILDER > Explorebuilder
Librarians might dedicate a whole 16-link explore pane to Citation Resources and helpful sites, including databases to best support teachers who are working on Essay Writing.
4) Technology Integration
Librarians often have expertise in emerging technologies and can assist teachers in integrating technology into the curriculum. This collaboration ensures that students are exposed to and comfortable with a variety of tools that can enhance their learning experience.
Bulletins
/BUILDER > Bulletins
Take online offerings and turn them into engaging bulletins that can be shared districtwide like the Jason Reynolds’s WriteRightRite series of writing challenges.
Explore Builder
/BUILDER > Explorebuilder
Librarians and teachers can identify and share ways to engage a whole school in a Fun Friday activity using CSFirst or TedEd.
5) Professional Development
Collaborating with librarians can provide teachers with valuable professional development opportunities. Librarians may offer training sessions on new educational technologies, research methodologies, or innovative teaching strategies.
Bulletins
/BUILDER > Bulletins
Librarians might invite teachers to collaborate on bulletin boards to benefit grade level instruction or even the whole district. They might host book clubs or share one book reading material for a whole grade level. Link to book trailers, articles, author videos, author websites, formative and summative assessments as well—and create that virtually sharing space.
Add Google Forms
/BUILDER > Bulletins
Librarians and teachers may gamify learning and create shared assessments or literature challenges or even shared exit tickets using bulletin boards—and these can link to Google Forms for easy grading—a real win-win that students love.
6) Individualized Learning
Librarians can support teachers in creating a more individualized learning experience for students by providing resources that cater to different learning styles and abilities. This can help address the diverse needs of students in the classroom.
Navigator
Add Languages + Differentiate
Merge thirty resources into a One-Search option that provides multiple language options, differentiation tools, and more. This provides districtwide language learning needs can use this one tools to aid teachers and learners. This one tools is like placing a teacher's aid in every classroom.
Explore: Series
/BUILDER > ExploreBuilder
Imagine how much reading would improve if you shared a whole line up of series titles within your ILS? With ALEX, librarians may serve up many ways to search the library: By Series, By Lexile, By AR Level, By Genre, By Real Story, By Publishing Categories, By Slideshow, even. They can create book collections and searches using simple search strings.
7) Promoting a Love for Reading
Librarians can work with teachers to cultivate a love for reading among students. By recommending engaging and age-appropriate books, organizing reading programs, and creating a positive reading environment, librarians and teachers can jointly contribute to the development of strong literacy skills.
3-Digit-Dewey
BUILDER > ExploreBuilder
Simplify Dewey. What is nice about this is that students will get to know the categories more and get a better understanding of where books are located within Dewey. Even round it off and serialize. You can pull great narrative nonfiction into a Real Story section.
Browse
/BROWSE
Studies show that nonfiction improves reading, and if readers crave movies and films based on true life, pulling out and displaying picture books and novels based on real events will improve reading. Here's what that looks like. Visit Browse and select R Real Story Biography or R Real Story Nonfiction. In seconds, 258+ books to use in class.
8) Data and Assessment
Librarians can assist teachers in gathering and analyzing data related to students' information literacy skills, reading habits, and research capabilities. This collaborative effort helps in making data-driven decisions to improve educational outcomes.
Add Engagement+
ALEX ADD ON
Alexandria's Engagement+ measures engaged reading and learning time online across the entire web and calculates the reading level and subject area of every webpage, regardless of whether it is free open-sourced content or a paid application or program.
Teacher's View
ALEX ADD ON
Also with Engagement+, teachers get the same helpful information on where and how student learning is happening, down to the student. Teachers can better connect with students, and assign reading across the web by reading level, subject area, or website.
9) Community Engagement
Librarians often serve as a bridge between the school and the community. Collaborating with teachers, they can organize events, workshops, and activities that involve parents and community members, creating a more connected and supportive learning community.
Book Clubs
/BUILDER > Bulletins
Create events, novel to novel comparisons, host a whole series for a voice and choice lessons, host a Fun Friday event, or even a program you do in the library annually. Share it out and invite interactive games and events. It can be as exciting as you wish.
Writing Activities
/BUILDER > Bulletins
Host activities that make for great Fun Friday activities that can be shared school wide in a middle school. Push coding or share TedEds or share Jason Reynold's WriteRightRite challenges and share activities that can be completed individually or in groups and watch your classroom engage.
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