Libraries in Kenya (Inquiry Blog 4)

"Your task this week is to explore online and learn about specific library projects in a developing nation. How can they best move forward to support the local needs of their communities?"

-LIBE 477B, UBC, 2023 

Dr. Marlene Asselin was one of my professors when I did my teacher training at UBC several years ago. Our class took place in a children’s library, and she taught us to use fictional children’s books to make a big idea more accessible (friendship, for example, or biodiversity, or Remembrance Day). It doesn’t surprise me at all to find out that now, almost 20 years later, she is involved in an organization (CODE) that believes “children learn best when they have access to reading material that is relatable, interesting, and easy to understand” (Literacy Programs, 2023).

CODE stands for Canadian Organization for Development through Education. They are a non-profit and aim to build literacy skills world-wide, with a focus on developing countries in Africa. The Understanding Literacy (2023) section of the CODE website shares a variety of statistics showing how low the literacy rates are in Sub-Saharan Africa as well as some benefits of literacy:

• 88% of of children aged 6-14 (202 million) are not meeting minimum proficiency levels in literacy.
• A child whose mother can read is 50% more likely to live past the age of five.

The website also has an interactive map showing which countries CODE has worked in. I was interested to see that they have worked in Kenya, as I briefly visited a school in rural Kenya in 2007.

Image from Where We Work.

I went digging through my old photo albums (physical ones, with printed photos and hand written labels haha) because I thought I had a photo of the Kenyan school I visited…and I found it!

Images by Laura Robinson (2007)

We visited this school as an extra stop on a tour and didn’t know we were going to be visiting it until we stopped. I remember my husband and I having a discussion afterwards about whether the school was actually as poor as it seemed, or if they played up how poor the school was in order to solicit donations from (comparatively) rich tourists. Regardless of the intent, it was a thought-provoking stop. We walked through the back of the dilapidated library containing extremely old and tattered books. The children at the school stood up when we walked in. After the library visit, we watched a group of children playing soccer in the courtyard with a ball made from plastic bags tied together with string. Compared to Canada, the school had very few resources. It lacked paint, soccer balls, books, and many other items. The lack of high-quality, relatable children’s books in schools is one of the problems CODE tries to solve.

CODE sets up programs to “mentor local authors and artists on the production of children’s books in …local languages” with the goal to “stack library and school shelves with colorful and engaging picture books that are appropriate for different reading levels, written in languages that children understand, and that reflect their local realities” (Literacy Programs, 2023). Their goal is to improve literacy by providing resources that students can relate to and enjoy reading. The books I saw on my trip would have been weeded immediately if they were in a library in Canada due to their age and physical state. I fully support CODE’s efforts to help solve this problem.

In 2017-18, CODE distributed more than 20,468 books to disadvantaged Kenyan schools (Where We Work, 2023). An example of a locally developed book called The Mango Mountain that was created for schools in Sierra Leone is posted on the CODE site.

Sallieu, S., Kaira, I., and Davies, W. The Mango Mountain. Reading Sierra Leone & PEN Sierra Leone & CODE, 2018. code.ngo/2019/10/10/a-peek-inside-our-favourite-new-childrens-books/#the-mango-mountain/1/

I think it’s unfortunate that many children born in developing countries struggle to develop literacy skills, and I am glad that Professor Asselin, CODE, and similar organizations are working to change that. I hope that the statistics shared earlier improve from year to year. The statistic on the website - 88% of children in Sub-Saharan Africa don’t meet minimum literacy standards (Understanding Literacy, 2023) - doesn't include information on when it was calculated. It would be interesting to see how that percentage changes over time.

Works Cited:

A Peek Inside Our Favourite New Children's Books. CODE, 2023, code.ngo/2019/10/10/a-peek-inside-our-favourite-new-childrens-books/. Accessed Oct 29, 2023.

Literacy Programs. CODE, 2023, code.ngo/approach/literacy-programs/. Accessed Oct 29, 2023.

Dr. Marlene Asselin. Language and Literacy Education, Faculty of Education, University of British Columbia, 2017, lled.educ.ubc.ca/marlene-asselin/. Accessed Oct 29, 2023.  

Sallieu, S., Kaira, I., and Davies, W. The Mango Mountain. Reading Sierra Leone & PEN Sierra Leone & CODE, 2018, code.ngo/2019/10/10/a-peek-inside-our-favourite-new-childrens-books/#the-mango-mountain/1/. Accessed Oct 29, 2023.

Where We Work. CODE, 2023, code.ngo/approach/where-we-work/. Accessed Oct 29, 2023.

Understanding Literacy. CODE, 2023, code.ngo/understanding-literacy/. Accessed Oct 29, 2023.

Positive Professional Development (Inquiry Blog 3)

 

"Your blog post this week should focus on finding ideas, solutions and suggestions for meeting the ICT professional needs of your many communities in your own school. What can you do differently, or new, this year that better support their inservice?" 

-Inquiry Project 3, LIBE 477B, UBC

I found this topic surprisingly interesting! I enjoyed reading the research about what makes professional development effective, and it was fun to brainstorm some ways I could support professional development in the school.

Image from pixabay.com

First, the research. Hill and Papay did a literature review on effective professional development (2022). They came up with six recommendations:

• Encourage peer collaboration
• Use focused coaching
• Add follow up meetings
• Target instructional practices over content knowledge
• Prioritize practical materials over theory
• Deliver more PD focused on relationships with students

Image from pixabay.com

I also read an article by Melnikova, who wrote about microlearning. She led a professional development course as a “group chat on a messaging platform…which we had already used for work-related communication at our school” (2023). Every month, she would post an article and 3-5 teaching tools and challenge her course participants (practicing teachers) to try one of the tools out in their classroom. The participants would reply to her post with their positive and negative experiences. At the end of the course, Melnikova received positive feedback that she attributed to having made the course accessible by using social media and microlearning.

Personally, I enjoy professional development more when I am doing it with a team. For example, several teachers at my school applied for a collaborative inquiry grant from our district to investigate how we could bring elements of outdoor learning into our urban classrooms. We were given money to spend on materials and the group would meet every couple of months after school to discuss the topic. I enjoyed this professional development experience because it was a safe, low pressure space to talk about trying new ideas. I also liked being able to explore an idea over the entire school year. The fact that this experience was collaborative and happened over time matches two of the recommendations from Hill and Papay.

Considering both articles and my personal experience, I get the sense that studying practical teaching strategies with the same group of people over time is a good recipe for positive professional development experiences. Canva helped me make a pretty infographic to share my specific ideas on how I could support professional development about ICT:

1. Becoming part of the Pro-D Committee at the school would allow me to share my opinions on which topics are most important and help steer what professional development is offered at the school.

2. Recommending digital literacy events put on by the district is a relatively easy thing to do. If teachers get the information, they may go.

3. Teams is a digital tool that my district uses to share information. As Melnikova used a messaging app to teach her microlearning course, I could use Teams to post information about an ICT teaching tool (maybe this Padlet Tutorial) and ask what people think of it. People who engage with the post might be interested in trying it in their classroom.

4. Demonstrating the use of digital resources with students would be an excellent and practical moment of ICT professional development. If I offered to co-teach units with classroom teachers, and included digital resources where possible, I could model the use of ICT during class time

.

5. I participated in a collaborative inquiry group a few years ago. I could see if any teachers at my school would be interested in doing another inquiry, with the goal of exploring ways to increase digital literacy in primary students.

6. A paper poster shares information with whoever reads it. Putting up posters with useful ICT facts in places where people linger (staff room, photocopier) encourages them to read the poster. Check out Potty PD by Burns (2021)!

Out of all six potential pro-d ideas, I suspect that demonstrating the use of various digital tools while co-teaching a unit would be the most successful. I'd be collaborating with peers, sharing an instructional strategy, prioritizing practical materials, and (likely) having post-lesson discussions with the co-teacher. That list incorporates four recommendations from Hill and Papay's research. Therefore, I would focus my teacher-librarian energy on learning to use new digital tools and sharing them with others at my school. I'd also join the pro-d committee at my school.

Works Cited:

Burns, M. "4 Reasons to Consider Potty PD This School Year." Class Tech Tips, December 22, 2021. https://classtechtips.com/2021/12/22/potty-pd/ . Accessed October 21, 2023.

Canva. www.canva.com. Accessed October 21, 2023.

Melnikova, V. "Setting Up In-house Microlearning for Teachers via a Message app." Edutopia, October 10, 2023. www.edutopia.org/article/microlearning-teachers-message-app. Accessed October 21, 2023.

Hill, H. and Papay, P. "Building Better PL: How to Strengthen Teacher Learning." Research Partnership for Professional Learning, October 25, 2022. https://annenberg.brown.edu/sites/default/files/rppl-building-better-pl.pdf. Accessed October 21, 2023.

"Padlet Tutorial for Teachers + 8 Ways to Use With Students." YouTube, uploaded by Pocketful of Primary, November 22, 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9IQVofS43I.

Exploring Twitter (Inquiry Project 2)

"What strategies, tools, resources and networks can you implement to maintain your explorations and development? What are some of the ways that educators and professionals are connecting and sharing their learning? What can you do during this class and after it is over to maintain your connections and networks, to further develop your knowledge, experience and skills?" 
 - Inquiry Project 2, LIBE 477B, UBC

Image from pixabay.com

I had heard that Twitter is a great place for teacher-librarians to connect, so I started my exploration by googling the word ‘Twitter’. Britannica informed me that as of July, Twitter is now known as X (2023). It went on to define X/Twitter as an “online social media platform and microblogging service that distributes short messages of no more than 280 characters.”

The previous 2 sentences are 231 characters (including spaces), so a post on X (formerly a tweet on Twitter) is roughly equivalent to two sentences. That’s not a lot of words! How does professional development happen in such short bursts of text?

Friedman says X/Twitter can become "a way to participate in education-focused conversations and idea sharing with other educators" (2020). He goes on to quote Meighen as saying X/Twitter is "where you have more conversations about ideas" compared to other social media networks. I agree that discussing ideas about education is a great form of professional development.

Similarly, Anderson finds X/Twitter valuable because it allows him to create a Personal Learning Network (PLN) where he can ask questions and share resources with many people who are interested in the same things he is interested in (2011). Since a teacher-librarian is often the only person doing that specific job in their workplace, I can see how helpful it would be to be part of a network of other people who are passionate about school libraries.

Next, I headed over to X to create my very own account. I was assigned a name, @LauraRobin13353, that I will be changing to something more professional shortly.

As I explored X, I followed accounts. Following an account makes posts from that account automatically pop up on my feed. I used an article by Sullivan for some initial teacher-librarian account recommendations and found others by looking at who the recommended TLs followed. I also found some local teacher-librarian resources. Here’s a list of six accounts I followed:

• @shannonmmiller – Professional account by Shannon McClintock Miller, the author of our textbook
• @FuseEight - The account of Betsy Bird, a blogging, authoring, podcasting librarian from Illinois.
• @ISTEofficial – ISTE is home to a passionate community of global educators who use technology to revolutionize learning.
• @JrLibraryGuild - A collection development service providing libraries with the best new-release books for children and young adults.
• @VTLA39 – The Vancouver Teacher-Librarians' Association is a chapter of the BCTLA. 
• @BCTLA - British Columbia Teacher-Librarians -a specialist association of the BCTF, dedicated to supporting school library programs for the children of BC.

I found it easy to get distracted in the sea of posts on X. Hashtags are another way to sort posts based on topic. While poking around X, I kept a list of hashtags I think an aspiring teacher-librarian might find useful: #tlchat #vtla39 #sd39 #vsblearns #ourVSB #schoollibrary #kidlit #SchoolLibraryJoy #librarytwitter #librarianship.

I haven’t posted anything on X yet. I’m a little intimidated to do so, because all the accounts I followed seem so put together and I still feel very new and unsure. I will probably lurk around the edges for awhile, reading other people’s posts and figuring out the program before actually posting anything. I also need to come up with a better name!

Works Cited:

Anderson, Steven. "The Twitter Toolbox for Educators." Teacher Librarian, vol 39 (1), October 2011, pp. 27-30. ProQuest, https://www.proquest.com/magazines/twitter-toolbox-educators/docview/902627349/se-2.

Britannica. "X." Encyclopedia Britannica, Oct. 12, 2023. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Twitter

Friedman, Jordan. “Using Social Media for Teacher Professional Development.” Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 23 June 2022. www.hmhco.com/blog/using-social-media-for-teacher-professional-development.

Sullivan, Brittany. "10 school librarians to follow on Twitter." On Our Minds Scholastic, Dec. 15, 2014. https://oomscholasticblog.com/post/10-school-librarians-follow-twitter#.

From DEAR to Powerpoint Recommendations (Inquiry Project 1)

“In your school and practice, how do you already foster a reading culture? What tools, strategies and resources can be implemented to encourage and support a school-wide reading program?”

- Inquiry Project, LIBE 477, UBC

Image from pixabay.com

In my classroom, I am fostering a reading culture by providing my students about fifteen or twenty minutes at the beginning of every day dedicated to quiet reading. I call it DEAR time. The quiet time also functions as a gentle start to the day. I would love to spread that dedicated quiet reading time and have the entire school participating at the same time! It wouldn’t necessarily have to be at the start of the day; that’s just what works for my current schedule. I think an ideal time would be right after lunch.

I’d also like to figure out a way to use the experience of DEAR time to get the students talking about books they’ve enjoyed. Maybe they are invited to put sticky note reviews in books, as recommended by Lee (2020). The student could give a number of stars out of 5 and write one thing they liked about the book. Alternatively, we could spend some class time taking a photo of a book we read recently that we enjoyed. I can think of two ways we could use the photos: 

• print the photos and glue on a handwritten paragraph about why we liked the book
• create a Powerpoint slide with the photo and a typed paragraph about why we liked it. 

Book cover picture from amazon.ca

I imagine Miller and Bass (2019) would recommend the Powerpoint version as an example of “rich, authentic learning experiences that utilize technology in meaningful ways”. As an individual classroom teacher, I am hesitant to use the Powerpoint version because it will take the students longer. As a teacher-librarian who prioritizes digital literacy, it’s a no-brainer to choose the Powerpoint version. I can also see several ways to showcase the finished Powerpoint presentation: silent slow scrolling on the big library TV during younger students’ book selection time; something to look at when parents are in the school, or simply as a class presentation.

Works Cited:

Lee, Laura. “Schoolwide Strategies for Promoting a Love of Reading.” Edutopia, George Lucas Educational Foundation, 12 Feb. 2020, https://www.edutopia.org/article/schoolwide-strategies-promoting-love-reading/.

Miller, S., & Bass, W. Leading from the Library: Help your School Community Thrive in the Digital Age. International Society for Technology in Education, 2019.

Research will continue

Consider and reflect on your research experience and share your thoughts with the learning group.

-Assignment 3, LIBE 477B, UBC

Image from pixabay.com

Having done a lot of reading, I still don’t feel my research on this topic is finished. I located 5 resources that connected to my interest in school library websites. The two most academic shared a generally critical attitude toward most current school library websites (Chow et al, 2016) or school websites in general (Hartshorne et al, 2008) and came up with a list of ways to improve the look, structure and content. The lists both websites provided are helpful and backed by a plethora of other research listed in the articles. In contrast, Jacubowicz’s 2022 blog post was limited to recommending specific content.

I found less information on how younger students use the library website than on how teenagers use library websites. Since I work in elementary schools, I would like to read more about how younger students use websites.

The other issue with my research is that it is dated. In their 2016 article, Chow et al. cite research from the late 2000s. Technology changes so quickly that information about website use from 15 years ago may have limited relevance today. I will continue to keep my eyes open for more current sources.

Key learnings from Hartshorne et al., (2008):

• Talk to the stakeholders (students, parents, teachers, admin, IT department) before and while designing the website. This creates buy-in and makes sure the website accounts for needs of all groups.
• Seeing student work online is motivating for students. Only 20% of school websites do this. This is an area that could be improved.

Key learnings from Chow et al. (2016):

• When designing a child-focused library website,
• Keep it simple, with easy vocabulary and lots of graphics. Minimize text.
• Keep it playful, with lots of interactions so visiting children can “leave a footprint” (Chow et al, 2016, Table 3). Use comforting images, sounds, and allow personalization
• Use bright colours, mascots, fun names, and graphics.
• Many school library websites are built using adult preferences for organization. This is a mistake.
• Children are less likely to seek specific information in an organized way compared to adults.

Key learnings from Jacubowicz (2022):

• When creating a school library website,
• High priority: TL photo and contact info, link to catalog 
• Middle priority: Library Policies and Procedures, information about how to do research, passwords, curriculum links 
• Lower priority: student work, class schedule, info on clubs, social media links

Key learnings from Kincaid (2023):

• Including a blog provides a great space to share student work

I am left wondering about the differences and similarities between a library website and a blog. The Jackson Elementary Library site highlights the blog side, with the catalogue and teacher-librarian info located along the multitude of top tabs. The tabs are clearly marked, but are not the first thing a visitor to the site sees. As explained earlier, much of the research states that simple, graphic-based organization is better for children. The Jackson site does not include many of the research recommendations, yet it is highly rated. I am curious to go back and look at who rated it highly and what criteria they were using.

Works Cited:

Chow, A. S., Morris, R. J., Figley, A., Regan, K., Lam, S., & Sherard, J. (2016, June 10). How Usable Are School Library Websites? A Random Sample from All Fifty States. Journal of Research on Libraries & Young Adults 7, https://www.yalsa.ala.org/jrlya/2016/06/how-usable-are-school-library-websites-a-random-sample-from-all-fifty-states/#_edn26. Accessed Sept. 29, 2023.

Hartshorne, R., Friedman, A., Algozzine, B., & Kaur, D. (2008). Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites. Educational Technology & Society, 11 (1), 291-303.

Jakubowicz, C. (2022, July 12). 6 Essentials Every School Library website needs. Mrs. J in the Library, https://mrsjinthelibrary.com/library-website-essentials/. Accessed Sept. 29, 2023.

Kincaid, A. (2023). Jackson Elementary Library, https://jacksonelementarylibrary.edublogs.org/. Accessed Sept. 29, 2023.

Valenza, J. K. (2005). The Virtual Library. Educational Leadership, 63(4), 54–59.

Best Practices for Creating School Library Websites

Collect, link and publish descriptions only of about 3-5 different resources that you have found useful in better understanding your topic(s).

 - Assignment 2, LIBE 477B, UBC

Oh my goodness. The task of finding 3-5 resources useful for my chosen topic took me down Internet rabbit hole after rabbit hole. Interesting detours, yes, but not necessarily useful-for-university-level-academia detours. After much reading, I decided to focus on learning more about quality library websites. Here are some resources I’m liking the look of:

1. How Usable Are School Library Websites? A Random Sample from All Fifty States

This 2016 article details the results of a survey of school library websites from across the United States. The article states that most school library websites rate poorly on measures of how engaging they are, age-appropriateness, and website design best practices. The authors of the article came up with a best practice checklist on ways to make a school library website more usable. Much of the supporting research they cite also looks intriguing.

Image from pixabay.com

2. Analysis of Elementary School Web Sites

This article culminates in a list of important things to consider when designing and developing a website for an elementary school. It's from 2008 and not everything on the list is applicable to libraries specifically, but there are some good basic points:

• develop a shared agenda
• plan the site with various stakeholders BEFORE designing/developing
• design expecting change
• follow general web design rules
• focus on benefits (like sharing student work!)
• additional resource for teachers

I especially appreciated the reminder to ask for input from a variety of stakeholders (students, parents, teachers, admin...) on the proposed website plan before spending all the time creating the site.

3. The Virtual Library

This is an older article from 2005. it is an easy read that extolls the many benefits of having a school library webpage. Valenza's quote, "A virtual library can become an integral part of the instructional culture of the school" pretty much sums up why I think the library webpage is so important.

4. Jackson Elementary Library

This isn't an academic article about best practices. Instead, it's an example of an outstanding and current elementary school library website. I found it through an article from Edublogger called School Library Websites: Essential Features And Examples, but I'm sure I've also seen it somewhere in the materials for our course. I recognized the jaguar. According to my readings, this is evidence of good branding!

5. 6 Essentials Every School Library Website Needs

Again, this link isn't academic. It is a YouTube video attached to a blog post from "Mrs J in the Library". The thing I liked about it was the extremely user-friendly checklist of important things to include on a school library website that went along with the video. She even divided her list into 2 categories: Essentials and "Expert Level Extras". Being new to the library game, I appreciate the step by step approach she recommends.

 

I am interested in...

“What topics, ideas or “keywords” are you interested in exploring through some literature searches? What is in your professional practice or environment that you would like to explore further about digital technologies, web 2.0, or 21st century learning and why?”

-Assignment 1, LIBE 477B, UBC 

I am interested in how to create an effective elementary school library website. This doesn’t exist yet at my workplace and I can see it being extremely useful. Questions I wonder about: What should I include? What parts of a library website are most helpful for primary students? Intermediate students? Teachers? Parents? What programs am I allowed to use to create the website? 

I am interested in personal learning networks. I joined a Facebook group in July 2020. That group was called “The Science of Reading – What I Should have Learned in College”. I joined it because I had a son in kindergarten who wasn’t picking up reading as quickly I wanted him to, so I’d been researching how to best teach reading. The knowledge I gained from the posts on that group was incredibly useful. It benefited my son as well as all the students I have worked with as a resource teacher since then. I wasn’t expecting to gain so much professional knowledge through social media, but it happened organically and I enjoyed the process. How can I replicate that for others? How do I create a community of engaged online learners among my students or in my school among my colleagues?

I am interested in ChatGPT. I’m not sure what I want to do with ChatGPT, but it’s interesting and everywhere and I am sure I can find ways for it to help me. I’ve heard of teachers using it to create resources, write lesson plans and mark papers. What could I use it for? Are my current students using it? Probably not, since they are 8. What are the ‘rules’ for using it ethically?

I am interested in online research with younger grades. Is there a best way to carry out ‘inquiry’? How old do students need to be before they can research online independently? What are some ways to make internet research more successful for young learners? 

Image from pixabay.com

This is a lot of different topics – too many for one course! Both Chat GPT and personal learning networks are interesting, but they aren’t immediately applicable to my work situation so I’m less inclined to focus on them.

I’m teaching a grade 3/4 class this year, and I know we’re going to be doing some online research. Having more knowledge about teaching young students how to independently find the information they are looking for would be helpful right away. Doing a research project with my class will give me more experience in teaching students how to do online research and improve my future teacher-librarian skill set. Possible keywords for this topic: inquiry learning, primary students, online research

Building an effective school library website would also be immediately helpful. I can see this project fitting in well with the ISTE Leader Standard discussed in our reading: “Educators seek out opportunities for leadership to support student empowerment and success and improve teaching and learning” (Miller and Bass, 2019). Building a online framework that allows students and teachers to access the library catalog and digital resources available would be beneficial in many ways. It would support students being able to locate books of interest independently and give teachers access to digital resources that they do not know exist. Better resources will improve teaching and learning. Possible keywords for this topic: elementary school library websites, website design

I will do some initial reading on both topics and see which interests me more.

Miller, S., & Bass, W. (2019).  Leading from the Library: Help your School Community Thrive in the Digital Age. International Society for Technology in Education.