Module 2: Strategic Planning and Evidenced Based Practice
Summary:
The article I read was entitled, "A Question of Evidence," and it basically discussed the fact that there are many professions in the world who consistently utilize evidence to make informed decisions. The medical field being one of the main entities that makes decisions on hard data. Education on the other hand has just began to embrace the idea of utilizing data to make decisions about curriculum, student needs, and student deficiencies. The article toggles with the difference between the varying differences of children, circumstances, schools, teachers, and several other variables that may affect that way the data is disagregated and synthesized. The article continues to state that many believe that this data is simply a fad, and may simply be another passing educational theory. Finally, the article discusses the issues surrounding the school librarian. The fact that many administrators and staff do not see the librarian's position as valuable, but by utilizing, the, " show me, " method of proving the worth of the librarian by studying student data, assisting with implementation of library programs, and by increasing student scores, the library just may not become extinct.
Citation:
Todd, R. J. (2008). A Question of Evidence. Knowledge Quest, 16-21.
Prompt Selected:
Why is it necessary to link school library programs to school goals and student success?
Reflection:
What is the purpose of a library? I know it is no longer the place where we simply house physical books. It should be the heart beat of the school building. Why? The library is a place where thoughts are provoked, creativity is ignited, and dreams are created. Evidence has proven that a child who reads well, writes well. It is proven that a child who reads for pleasure has a much more extended vocabulary. The rote memorization of words never helped anyone. But, that word in a book, in the middle of that paragraph that you fell in love with, where you immediately connected with the character and begin to cry. Somehow, someway, you understood and comprehended that strange word. You knew exactly what it meant. You didn't even know. "context clues," was a type of lesson or a method of figuring out the definition of an unfamiliar word. You simply felt the pride you feel when you know that you learned something new.
A library can take that moment, intrigue student, teachers, and administrators, and create programs that link student's weaknesses and successes to what types of collections are created, what types of programs are implemented, and even what types of rewards are given.
With the inventions of Barnes and Nobles, cute coffee shoes, internet, E-books, E-readers, smart phones, and shall I go on? I know that a librarian's importance is now directly related to student success, and goals are created directly from student assessments. I can attempt to run from this idea because I personally do not like assessment driven instruction, but I have used data to make assessments in the past about my students and I have always had over a 90% success rate in low performing schools. It works.
I must alter the way I do things because the numbers speak for themselves. It's how we use the numbers that determines who will remain and who will falter. If I choose to do the research, implement library programs that directly correlate with student success, then the librarian profession just may not be doomed, it may be revived.
Reflection #2: Strategic Based Planning and Evidence Based Practice
Summary:
This article was broken down into multiple parts, but was solely created from a Summit where librarians, administrators, and community stake holders were to determine if there is still a genuine need for librarians. The article probes a questions that consistently pops up, can it be proven that librarians are needed? Where is the evidence? Overall, the article states that students need 21st Century Skills, research capabilities, and access to information, and the library is the main hub for this type of information. Unfortunately, many stake holders, mainly administrators need to, "see," the evidence as provided by actual data. How much has this school, the goals, the testing scores, the children individually have each improved? Librarians are pushed to begin to provide this information in hard written formats, presentations, and graphs to provide their viability, or prove that they are not needed. Either way, cold hard facts are being required in order for librarians to maintain positions during these times of drastic budget cuts.
Citation:
Todd, Ross (2008). The Evidence-Based Manifesto for School Librarians. School Library Journal, 16-21.
Prompt Selected:
Consider your experience with school libraries--how have school libraries worked to make this connection? If not, why not and how is it possible?
Reflection:
I honestly have not seen any school libraries make this connection. Maybe this is why librarians are becoming extinct. Most think of the librarian as an old place that houses old physical books, but now has a few computers that provide access to the internet. "If we do not show value, we will not have a future. Evidence-based practice is not about the survival of school librarians, it’s about the survival of our students. This is the social justice and ethical imperative for evidence-based practice (Todd, 2007)." This quote basically sums up the article in it's simplest form. I must, as a future librarian, make my position important, or it will cease to exist.How do I go about doing this? I must first study the data about the school, then I must find out what programs will help each child and the school on a holistic level. From that point, each time I am able, I must gage what progress the student and the program is making. I must take that information and yell it to the community via an electronic newsletter. This can and will work if librarians are well trained and up to par on the most current web tools, I believe that this has been a problem in the past and is today because many of the current librarians were trained so long ago. A system needs to be created to measure whether this progress and evidence based reporting is being completed by all librarians. This I believe would help in the solving of this problem.
Summary:
The article I read was entitled, "A Question of Evidence," and it basically discussed the fact that there are many professions in the world who consistently utilize evidence to make informed decisions. The medical field being one of the main entities that makes decisions on hard data. Education on the other hand has just began to embrace the idea of utilizing data to make decisions about curriculum, student needs, and student deficiencies. The article toggles with the difference between the varying differences of children, circumstances, schools, teachers, and several other variables that may affect that way the data is disagregated and synthesized. The article continues to state that many believe that this data is simply a fad, and may simply be another passing educational theory. Finally, the article discusses the issues surrounding the school librarian. The fact that many administrators and staff do not see the librarian's position as valuable, but by utilizing, the, " show me, " method of proving the worth of the librarian by studying student data, assisting with implementation of library programs, and by increasing student scores, the library just may not become extinct.
Citation:
Todd, R. J. (2008). A Question of Evidence. Knowledge Quest, 16-21.
Prompt Selected:
Why is it necessary to link school library programs to school goals and student success?
Reflection:
What is the purpose of a library? I know it is no longer the place where we simply house physical books. It should be the heart beat of the school building. Why? The library is a place where thoughts are provoked, creativity is ignited, and dreams are created. Evidence has proven that a child who reads well, writes well. It is proven that a child who reads for pleasure has a much more extended vocabulary. The rote memorization of words never helped anyone. But, that word in a book, in the middle of that paragraph that you fell in love with, where you immediately connected with the character and begin to cry. Somehow, someway, you understood and comprehended that strange word. You knew exactly what it meant. You didn't even know. "context clues," was a type of lesson or a method of figuring out the definition of an unfamiliar word. You simply felt the pride you feel when you know that you learned something new.
A library can take that moment, intrigue student, teachers, and administrators, and create programs that link student's weaknesses and successes to what types of collections are created, what types of programs are implemented, and even what types of rewards are given.
With the inventions of Barnes and Nobles, cute coffee shoes, internet, E-books, E-readers, smart phones, and shall I go on? I know that a librarian's importance is now directly related to student success, and goals are created directly from student assessments. I can attempt to run from this idea because I personally do not like assessment driven instruction, but I have used data to make assessments in the past about my students and I have always had over a 90% success rate in low performing schools. It works.
I must alter the way I do things because the numbers speak for themselves. It's how we use the numbers that determines who will remain and who will falter. If I choose to do the research, implement library programs that directly correlate with student success, then the librarian profession just may not be doomed, it may be revived.
Reflection #2: Strategic Based Planning and Evidence Based Practice
Summary:
This article was broken down into multiple parts, but was solely created from a Summit where librarians, administrators, and community stake holders were to determine if there is still a genuine need for librarians. The article probes a questions that consistently pops up, can it be proven that librarians are needed? Where is the evidence? Overall, the article states that students need 21st Century Skills, research capabilities, and access to information, and the library is the main hub for this type of information. Unfortunately, many stake holders, mainly administrators need to, "see," the evidence as provided by actual data. How much has this school, the goals, the testing scores, the children individually have each improved? Librarians are pushed to begin to provide this information in hard written formats, presentations, and graphs to provide their viability, or prove that they are not needed. Either way, cold hard facts are being required in order for librarians to maintain positions during these times of drastic budget cuts.
Citation:
Todd, Ross (2008). The Evidence-Based Manifesto for School Librarians. School Library Journal, 16-21.
Prompt Selected:
Consider your experience with school libraries--how have school libraries worked to make this connection? If not, why not and how is it possible?
Reflection:
I honestly have not seen any school libraries make this connection. Maybe this is why librarians are becoming extinct. Most think of the librarian as an old place that houses old physical books, but now has a few computers that provide access to the internet. "If we do not show value, we will not have a future. Evidence-based practice is not about the survival of school librarians, it’s about the survival of our students. This is the social justice and ethical imperative for evidence-based practice (Todd, 2007)." This quote basically sums up the article in it's simplest form. I must, as a future librarian, make my position important, or it will cease to exist.How do I go about doing this? I must first study the data about the school, then I must find out what programs will help each child and the school on a holistic level. From that point, each time I am able, I must gage what progress the student and the program is making. I must take that information and yell it to the community via an electronic newsletter. This can and will work if librarians are well trained and up to par on the most current web tools, I believe that this has been a problem in the past and is today because many of the current librarians were trained so long ago. A system needs to be created to measure whether this progress and evidence based reporting is being completed by all librarians. This I believe would help in the solving of this problem.