IMPACT for Administrators

It is 7:00 a.m. – just another day in the Innovation school media center.  Students cluster in the foyer waiting for the library doors to open. The library is always used heavily before the school day begins. Some students will come to the media center to work on class assignments. Others will check out books. Teachers stop by to schedule a class in the media center for a project. At 8:00 a.m., the first bell rings and the media center empties while students flock to homeroom class.

Mr. Reynold’s seventh grade math class is the first class of the day for Mrs. Wright, the school library media coordinator.  Geometry is always a favorite part of the math curriculum in seventh grade because students never tire of constructing shapes and figures. Today, students are exploring an engineering geometric wonder of the world, domes. Mrs. Wright is excited today to share some of the books in the media center on the design and construction of structures. Some of Mrs. Wright’s favorites are Building Big by David Macaulay, Experiment! Spiderwebs to Skyscrapers: The Science of Structures by David Darling, and Eyewitness Books: Force & Motion by Peter Lafferty.

After Mr. Reynold’s class leaves, Mrs. Wright checks on a couple of eighth grade boys who are investigating the various estuaries in North Carolina. Their assignment is to locate an estuary to visit on a field trip. Mrs. Rowland, the media assistant, helps the boys do a search on the Internet on estuaries in North Carolina. So far the boys have information on the Neuse River, the Albemarle, and the Pamlico River Estuary. Mrs. Wright directs the eighth grade boys to resources in the reference collection.  Several books on North Carolina can aid their decision. Notably, The Nature of North Carolina’s Southern Coast: Barrier Islands, Coastal Waters and Wetlands by Dirk Frankenberg describes several estuaries of interest.

The Lunchtime Book Club meets today.  Students who join the club bring their lunch to the library and discuss a book that they are reading. Currently, they are reading The DoubleLife of Zoe Flynn by Janet Lee Carey about a girl who hides the fact from her classmates that her family lives in a van. Mrs. Wright has several book clubs to meet the varied interests of students. Her personal favorite is the sports heroes book club she jointly coordinates with Mr. Reynolds.  When reading is connected to real-world contexts and personal interest students are more motivated to read (Ivey and Broaddus, 2001).

After lunch Mrs. Wright meets with the sixth grade collaborative planning team for the afternoon. Each year the sixth grade teachers focus the instructional program around a central theme. This year the theme is cities. The team has already decided the theme for next year will be detectives. Today, they want to pinpoint resources and plan ideas for integrating the theme with the SCOS. Mrs. Wright is excited.  The detective/mystery genre of young adult literature is always a favorite with middle grade students. Today she suggests to Mrs. Johnson, the language arts teacher, Wolf Rider by Avi and Getting Lincoln’s Goat by E. M. Goldman as literature for next year.  

Mrs. Wright also thinks the history detectives Web site (http://www.pbs.org/opb/ history detectives/index.html) will be the perfect fit for the social studies curriculum. During the planning meeting she shows this Web site to Mr. Carter, the sixth grade social studies teacher while Mr. Grady, the science teacher and Mr. Brown, the math teacher discuss some ideas for integrating math and science with a detective theme. Mrs. Wright has appreciated the insight that a theme-based approach has brought to the sixth grade teachers. The sixth grade teachers recognize that their role as the content specialist combined with the media specialist’s role as resource specialist has helped build a stronger, more dynamic instructional program (Russell, 2002). 

Theoretically, every unit of instruction in any subject curriculum has an opportunity for a problem- or inquiry-based learning component that requires data, information, and knowledge (Georges, 2004, p. 34). For Mrs. Wright, her role within the educational institution is clear.  It is her responsibility to seize every opportunity, to provide her colleagues with instructional activities, and to create a collaborative atmosphere that fosters information literacy. 

For online video examples of school library media coordinator scenarios visit the following Web link: <http://nditsvns04.its.state.nc.us/ramgen/dpi/MediaTech/ProfessionalAssessment/mcpai.rm>

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