Put Understanding First

The article posted in our assignment for last week, or maybe the week before, titled "Educational Leadership: Reshaping High Schools: Put Understanding First," really hit the educational spot for me. Despite that it was focused towards teachers in high school, I think anyone who teaches would find the information in it very valuable. Being a Prek through 1st grade teacher-librarian, I was never given a curriculum to help me know what to teach my students, or how to teach library. In my first year, I looked at the Illinois Standards as a guideline, discussed with the other elementary librarian what her expectations were of students entering second grade and looked at other websites for other school librarians. Through all of my research and in my third year of teaching, I have finally set a curriculum for my kindergarten students. It's not perfect, but I tried to use my first two years as guide on what sequence of introducing concepts that worked and where I needed to move things, and I think it is finally set in stone. I'm now working on first grade, which will probably take me another two years, and then three more curriculums for 3, 4 and 5 year olds. Like a teacher, I know what I want my students to learn, and now my only problem is how to teach it so they understand it and can apply it to various settings. Many teachers have stated that this is the biggest problem in education, students not able to transfer and use skills used in one setting to another. And this is something that I do not want. I want my students to be able to use the skills I teach them in any setting and with different people, and with different wording. So I try very hard to phrase things in different ways. Ask questions in reverse. For example, kindergarten students know that the spine holds the book together, but I also want them to be able to answer, "what holds a book together?" The article pointed out that "out-of-context learning of skills is arguably one of the greatest weaknesses of the secondary curriculum," but it is also a problem in the elementary and primary level as well. It also said, "that if we don't give students sufficient ongoing opportunities to puzzle over genuine problems, make meaning of their learning, and apply content in various contents, then long-term retention and effective performance are unlikely, and high schools will have failed to achieve their purpose." I try to achieve this concept every year with the library scavenger that I started last year with the first graders. I give pairs of students five questions and they must use the skills I have taught them to locate and find books either using the information freely or using the information with OPAC. The questions are very basic and usually have other information that they must right down. For example, I would give them the title of a book. They would have to search OPAC to find the call number, write down the call number and then find the book on shelf and tell me the author, illustrator, copyright date, publisher and title. Some students who are at the higher level, know they can find most of this information on the OPAC screen, but not all students are at that level of thinking. In either case, they find the information, write it down and go to the next one. Sometimes I give them the title and call number and they have to do the same thing. It is a lot of fun, the library gets noisy and the kids really enjoy it. It also lets me know where I need to improve what I am teaching if they are not able to answer certain questions or find the information. It is a learning experience for all of us. Every situation in the library is a learning situation. I had one student ask, why she just couldn't have a shelf marker and go to a shelf and pick out a book, but I don't make it that easy. I give them a three letter call number and they must match that call number to a call number on a book. They may not know it, but they are learning how a library is laid out and by the end of the year, I would say over 95% of my kindergarten students can find their call number with no assistance and by the end of first grade I would say very close to 100% can find an easy fiction call number with no help, or hints. It is a skill I feel they can use for their rest of their lives, whether finding a word in the dictionary or looking for a book on the shelf. I try to make all the skills I teach them skills that they will need later in life. I'm not perfect, and I am always striving to be a better teacher and helping students who are just not getting new ways to understand.