Using Online Resources for Research

For High School Library Media Specialists

Session 2 – 9:10 – 10:10Session 3 – 10:20 - 11:20Session 4 – 11:20 – 12:30

Objective of SessionFacilitators: Carol Schwam & Martha MorrisObjective: Librarians learn how online digital research tools can support the literary and research needs of students.Description: High School librarians will learn how to introduce and train students to use specific digital resources to gather information for projects and writing assignments. These protected databases offer students educationally tested and safe sites to locate information in educational journals, periodicals and digitized books

ObjectivesKnow: • Literacy is every educator’s obligation.• Every librarian has the potential to impact literacy through instruction, resources and support.• Shelby County Schools has developed a Comprehensive Literacy Improvement Plan (CLIP) to

accelerate literacy learning.Understand:• Learned strategies can be integrated across content areas to increase student literacy.• Development and implementation of high-quality programs encourage student reading and

enhance literacy instruction across all grades and subjects.• Digital resources are additional tools that can be used to impact student literacy.Do:• Analyze literacy assessments to determine the instructional needs of their students• Design activities or lessons that support Common Core Standards in literacy• Obtain grants to provide high quality resources to increase literacy• Provide multiple opportunities to engage in authentic literacy activities

Norms•Be present and engaged

•Be respectful of differences in perspective while challenging each other productively and respectively

•Monitor “air time”

•Make the most of the time we have

•Stay focused on students

ObjectivesKnow:• The DRAFT SCS Comprehensive Literacy Improvement Plan (CLIP) ensures a

quality balanced literacy approach to instruction that results in high levels of learning for all students, across content areas

Understand: • All teachers can respond to the literacy needs of struggling readers and writers,

including ELLs and students w/ disabilities, and support improved content-area learning so that students develop the literacy skills and strategies of skilled readers and writers

Be able to Do: • Implement research-based literacy strategies and practices that enable students

to comprehend informational texts across all content areas• Plan reading and writing tasks that are meaningful, analytical, and authentic to

specific content areas• Provide effective vocabulary instruction that not only includes discipline-specific

words, but also high utility (or Tier 2) words that occur across other content areas

What is the Goal of Content Area Literacy Instruction?

• To teach the ideas, concepts, and principles of a specific subject in a manner that learners receive instruction in reading strategies that meet the unique requirements of the individual subject area

ACT, The Forgotten Middle, 2008

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Chance of Later Success

Science Mathematics

UnpreparedIn

Reading1% 15%

PreparedIn

Reading32% 67%

Literacy and content area learning depend on each other

What happens if students leave MS and enter HS unprepared for reading?

Building knowledge through content-rich non-fiction and informational texts [Reading Standards #1-10 in ELA and Reading Standards for History/SS, Science, and Technology]

Reading, writing, and speaking grounded in evidence from the text [Reading Standard #1, Speaking and Listening Standard #1, and Writing Standards #1, #2, #9]

Regular practice with complex texts and their academic vocabulary [Reading Standards #10 and #4]

Progress toward CCR Shifts in Literacy/ELA hold Promise for Content Area Learning

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CCR Standards designed to Support Content Area Learning

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CCR Standards designed to Support Content Area Learning

What do we mean when we say, “Our students can’t read”? What do we do?

“When faced with students’ resistance to reading or difficulty in comprehending course materials, teachers respond in a variety of ways. Feeling pressed to cover the curriculum , unprepared to assist students with reading, and eager to make sure students understand the content of a particular discipline, many find themselves teaching around reading. “They make adjustments that may seem sensible but that they know are compromises. ‘I’m doing backflips in the classroom to get the content across without expecting them to read the textbook,’ … I’ve stopped assigning reading; the text is almost supplementary for my … curriculum’”

(Schoenbach, et al, 1999: 4)

Literacy in the Content Areas• Models and reinforces metacognitive strategies, e.g., self-correction, questioning,

visualization, annotation, connections/PK, summarization, graphic organizers

• Acknowledges each content area has its own literacy norms, text structures, and challenges (e.g., genres, vocabulary, concepts, and topics)

• Includes explicit instruction (including modeling) and practice in the literacies and content of each discipline

• Appreciates vocabulary is strongly related to general reading achievement; includes both direct, explicit instruction and indirect, learning from context (e.g., listening, other reading instruction, reading) to support vocabulary and comprehension

• Focuses explicit vocabulary instruction on words that fall between two tiers--words that students already know and those that are so rare as to be of little utility—and are used across content areas (academic vocabulary)

• Leverages writing as a means to learn and develop—how students make sense of, synthesize, summarize, and evaluate their learning (not just to assess content learning)

• Uses discussion and writing prompts to reflect on current understandings, questions, and learning processes help improve content-area learning

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High School Instructional Design (per DRAFT CLIP)

• Lessons span multiple days

• Gradual release of responsibility across days

• Reading and writing inextricably linked

Reading Writing ELA

Core (Grade-Level Instruction for All Students)

Complex Texts Writing About Texts

Taught in the Context of Writing

Whole Group Teach/model grade level standards, concepts, skills

I do – teacher modelsWe do - guided practice

Teach/model grade level standards, concepts, skills

I do – teacher modelsWe do - guided practice

Teach/model grade level standards, concepts, skills

I do – teacher modelsWe do - guided practice

Small Group Teacher LedFlexible groups

Teacher LedFlexible groups

Teacher LedFlexible groups

Whole Group Closure - Summarize what you have learned

Closure - Summarize what you have learned

Closure - Summarize what you have learned

Supplemental (Tier 2) Support for Targeted Students

It’s not about how students are arranged; it’s about the work in which they are engaged.

Is instruction…?-Purposeful-Rigorous -Differentiated to meet student needs-Consistent with evidence-based practice-Aligned to TEM standards

Beyond Appearances

The Gradual Release of Responsibility (to introduce or reinforce a new skill)

Teacher Responsibility

Student Responsibility

I do it.

We do it.

They do it (together).

You do it (independent of the teacher).

Guided

Collaborative

Independent

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Access Points to Build a Bridge Between Reader and Text (Frey & Fisher, 2013)

1. Establishing a purpose for reading a complex text, and modeling how an expert reader makes meaning

2. Providing scaffolded and close reading instruction to guide students through complex texts

3. Creating opportunities for collaborative conversations w/ peers to refine understanding

4. Moving them forward through independent reading of increasingly complex texts

5. Using formative assessment so teacher and reader know what is know and still needs to be

Literacy “Look-Fors”-Content Area Literacy

• Clearly identified/observed literacy and language objectives for each content area lesson

• Research-based literacy strategies and practices implemented in lessons

• Students read content-specific text and respond, with evidence, to text-based questions.

• Students respond to text in ways that are meaningful, analytical, and authentic to the content area

Benefits Of Using Databases• Reading Level • Listen to Article• Ease of Use• Dictionary• Email• Source Citation• Reliable Sources• Copy Paste Works Cited Page

Disadvantage of Databases

• Can be overwhelming to students

Database Vocabulary

• Source• Database• Journal• Reference Book• Source Citation or MLA

High School DatabasesTennessee Electronic Library

ProquestBritannica

World Almanac

Databases

• Gradually introduce databases as needed for projects

Research Topics

Research a biography of a famous person. This could be a historical figure, an author, a pop star, or a

business icon.

Research Topics

Write a literary analysis of a fictional novel. Your novel should argue a particular position of a

literary element.

Research TopicChoose a position on a controversial issue.

What are the cancerous effects of radiation and the impact of radiation on those affected

by the Chernobyl disaster of 1986?

Tips To Promote Databases

Teach students and teachers to go through your web site to find databasesKeep web site clear of clutter

Keep passwords available in libraryUse a web site counter

Remember Humor Works

Share TimeFor Discussion:

How can we adapt our databases to accommodate ESL students?

SPED students?

Accommodations1. Databases can be changed to accommodate different

reading levels (elementary, middle or high).2. Some databases are available in both Spanish and

English.3. Size of fonts can be adjusted for vision impaired

students. 4. Some databases offer audio reading of the text for

students who need to hear words pronounced.

Question and Answer Session

Contact Carol Schwam or Martha Morris for more information.