Our Wiggly Future: DFW Annie Wright School Winter 2006
I had a great time doing some Directed Field Work at the library of Annie Wright School. While there I did many things that were firsts for me including cataloging, book talking and writing and teaching library and information literacy lessons. This school's library program is in a time of transition, from being a "library-as-place" to an integrated library program. I came to the library, newly headed by shiny, progressive iSchool graduate Elizabeth Borgen, noticing it was a pretty old-fashioned kind of place that was poised to head in the direction of the 21st century at any second. One of my favorite contributions was writing and teaching distinct lesson plans for the Pre-school through 1st Grade library visits, which include a story time at the beginning. This wiggly crowd was accustomed to having a story read to them and then a quick trip to check out a book for the week. I decided to ramp up the experience a little bit by adding content to the story time experience that included literacy enriching discussions and participation. We learned about graphic text that punches up the drama of a story, we learned about themes common throughout several books and about the power of illustration. The students were briefly surprised at the additional demands placed upon them, but quickly adjusted and enjoyed the challenges. I also enjoyed catching their classroom teachers afterward to tell them what the students had learned about, which was new for the teachers.
These grades had never had formal lesson plans written before and the greatest compliment I received for my contributions was the teacher librarian telling me that she would use those plans, as is, the following year and use my plans as a template for future lesson plans. My contributions were a long way from moving the library along to an integrated position in the school, but I feel as though I demonstrated that even story time could be much more enriching.
Here is one example of a lesson I wrote.
While I have been a teacher for some time, my experience with LIS 560 re-taught me how to teach (everyone needs a regular refresher), taught me new skills and taught me how to teach in the context of a library setting. I am also grateful for my young adult literature course. I felt prepared and comfortable to give book talks and I could also speak with some confidence about young adult fiction, of which I knew little prior to the course and prior to this DFW.
Feedback from the supervisor
"Melissa Adams taught many of my Lower School sessions with little need for guidance. Each lesson was clearly carefully thought out and accompanied by a thorough lesson plan. Melissa produced a lot of excellent lesson plans for our Lower School sessions that I plan to use next year in class."
Elizabeth Borgen, MLIS, Annie Wright School Librarian