Mid-Planning

Essential Questions – I had taken along a “TLC (Teacher and Librarian Collaboration) Worksheet” with me to my first meeting with Jeff, my collaborative teacher partner on this unit, which helped us in our conversation and planning. After wonderful conversations concerning the Romeo and Juliet unit and some of the things that Jeff does as part of this unit (see “pre-planning” post), we started going through the worksheet. The essential questions for the Romeo and Juliet unit are:
· How do my relationships within and across groups affect others?
· How may personal decisions affect my family or neighborhood?
· Can decisions based on violence or anger have a peaceful resolution?
· How do we understand material that is difficult to read?
It was shortly after this that I asked Jeff what he saw as my role in this collaborative unit. He told me that frankly he had the lessons all ready for what he wanted to teach, he just wanted me to focus on plagiarism, proper citation, and bibliographic entries in MLA style in whatever manner I would like to do that. In other words, I am mainly filling the role of a resource person in this unit. He is happy with the unit, he just wants to tweak these areas a bit and felt that the school media specialist would be a good person to teach these areas that this particular class is weak in. I have since added the following essential questions:
· How do we properly cite material without plagiarism?
· How do we create a bibliography in MLA style?

Task Division - Since my role in this collaborative project is mainly that of a resource person, there are not many tasks to “divide.” Jeff will teach the Romeo and Juliet unit within his English 9 class using the applicable academic content standards, and I will make sure that some of the information literacy standards are met. Since this project is for my grad school class for my grade, I will have to design and write everything that I feel should be in the unit plan according to the requirements. I am free to contact him if I have questions of any kind, though. As I said in the previous post, this is our summer vacation from the regular school year and Jeff wants to enjoy it, his family, and the evening classes that he is taking. Our biggest hindrance is the timing of creating this unit because it falls over the summer vacation.

Assessment – During our latest meeting, which took place over the telephone, we specifically discussed assessment. Since I am teaching the plagiarism, citation, and bibliography lessons, I offered to be responsible for these areas. Jeff was thrilled and said that he would incorporate into their grade for the unit whatever grade I gave them (ex.: “References” page).

Ethnolinguistic Minority Learning Needs and Abilities – Ours is a very small school which has been declining in enrollment over the last five years due to the economy and loss of jobs in the area. Jeff taught this in-coming 9th grade class as 8th graders last year. There are only 18 students in this particular class, 100% White/Caucasian, 3 males and 15 females, one special education student, and two students who would qualify for Title help if we still had it in the upper grades. One of the “Title” students may be moving out of the area this summer. Most of these students have been together since Kindergarten, with the “newest” member of the class joining over two years ago. Most of the students in this class are readers who love to “book talk” and they all get along pretty well together. In order to meet the needs of all learners as well as add variety and fun, a lot of different methods are employed including small group brainstorming sessions where groups rotate to a different focus station every few minutes, use of video segments, class discussions, Reader’s Theater style script readings, acting out certain scenes, and various writing activities. Accommodations are made for the special needs students (ex: more time for writing activities).

Early Planning

My collaborative partner, Jeff, and I met in the local public library where we were kindly granted use of a beautiful conference room with wireless, electricity, a large table and comfy chairs. We had already come to consensus on the Romeo and Juliet unit for 9th grade which Jeff already teaches but would like to “tweak” in certain areas. This particular unit would take 4-5 weeks to teach, and he likes to do it during the 2nd trimester of the year so one particular section falls around Valentine’s Day. We spent a lot of time looking at the daily lesson plans and Jeff described many other activities which he pulls in to enhance them. I was very impressed with his ideas and suggestions and feel that it would be very appealing to this year’s incoming 9th grade class.

I found out that this unit is part of an educational package of copyrighted material which was purchased by our school. Jeff uses the main outline of it, but does not follow it by the letter. We will not be able to post any of this material because of copyright. An hour and a half into the session, we finally got around to what he expects of me only to discover that he wants my role to be that of a resource person rather than a collaborative instructional partner. He is not willing to put much more time or effort into this as it is his summer vacation (a feeling which many teachers share, and understandable so). This was totally unexpected to me, though, and I must admit that I was surprised. After thinking about it for a few days, I cannot help but agree with Dr. Kumasi’s statement, “Welcome to the real world of school librarianship!” Although I was expecting this to be a full in-depth collaborative unit, the teacher was not planning it that way. I will just have to be content that a small step was taken on the road to improved collaboration and that I am helping a teacher teach.

The culminating project will be a newspaper created by each student in “Elizabethan Era” style containing various articles about the life and times of William Shakespeare, the theater, Romeo and Juliet and their families, and articles which would be of interest considering the time period. Jeff would like me to do specific lessons with the 9th graders about plagiarism, citations, and references (which he wants added as an extra sheet to the end of their newspaper). He would also like me to coordinate use of the media center for a few days during the unit to allow for some special group activities which work better in a larger space. At this point, it sounds like my functions in this collaborative endeavor would be coordination and cooperation (according to Montiel-Overall’s “Teacher and Librarian Collaboration Model”).

In looking specifically at what Jeff has asked me to teach, I think that the following 21st Century Learning Standards would fit best with lessons on plagiarism, giving credit to others’ works through proper citations, and creating a reference page:
Skills 3.1.6 - Use information and technology ethically and responsibly.
Actions 2.2.4 - Create a simple research plan with a specific deadline.
Responsibilities 1.3.1 – Respect copyright/intellectual property rights of creators and producers.
Self-Assessment 1.4.4 – Seek appropriate help when it is needed.

My initial thoughts on assessment are that I will probably assess the lessons that I am doing (which probably will not be in the form of a letter grade), and Jeff will assess everything for his English class.

Jeff and I get along very well and enjoy “book talking” back and forth. We talked easily about this unit and probably would have gone on longer if the library wasn’t closing for the evening. I must admit that I came into this project with different expectations than what he had, though. I think our main roadblock is the time period in which this collaborative effort falls, since he indicated that he would be willing to do more if it was during the regular school year instead of summer vacation.