Karen Abraham 
Table of Contents
During the last eleven years that I have been the school librarian at Laconia High School in New Hampshire, one of the best parts of my job has been the opportunity to collaborate with teachers in our joint mission to support the success of all learners. This collaboration comes naturally with a few subjects such as English and social studies, but does not always occur in science, math, technology or the integrated arts. However, I do make it a goal to connect with as many staff members as possible every school year to share with them new strategies, tactics, and resources that support instruction. One program in particular–a new strategic literacy initiative–has become an incredible opportunity for me to make instructional connections with my colleagues outside of the humanities.
On our first professional development day of the 2022 school year, my colleagues and I were presented with this statement from the National Commission on Writing:
“If students are to make knowledge their own, they must struggle with the details, wrestle with the facts, and rework raw information and dimly understood concepts into language they can communicate to someone else. In short, if students are to learn, they must write.”
We developed a strategic literacy plan which stated that all educators would regularly use a research and literacy-based instructional framework that allows for personalization and engages students in regular opportunities to read, write, and discuss. The goal of having our students become strategic readers was an integral part of our new literacy plan. For teachers of the humanities, the addition of these strategies fell easily into place in the language arts curriculum. Less apparent was how we would integrate the read, write, discuss strategy into our electives, art, health/physical education, foreign language and woodworking. In discussions with my colleagues I quickly realized I could be a resource to make this task less overwhelming for my fellow teachers. Additionally, I was excited for the chance to build relationships with teachers in subjects with which I don’t always have a natural connection.
With the read, write, discuss initiative in mind, I took a critical look at the resources in the library and found three that have been extremely useful. Those three resources are:
Access World News
My school system provides Access World News by Newsbank, Inc., as a research tool. This database is a combination of international, national, regional, and local news covering 200 countries and territories and all 50 states, and offers newspapers, magazines and journals that students can use to research any topic. I rely on their daily headlines and lesson plans as a first stop when reviewing how Access World News can accommodate educators with read, write, discuss. They offer a ‘suggested topics’ page, which helps with class projects, and the ability to filter by date, lexile level, and source type, which allows educators to tailor the search for resources to their classes. The option to view sources by state allows teachers and students to find articles that are close to home, making them relatable and perhaps creating more connections for student discussions. This database also provides sources in foreign languages. Being able to provide articles for students in Spanish and French has been a great way for me to connect with our foreign language teachers in their work with the read, write, and discuss protocols. It is definitely exciting when I can find new ways to make successful collaborations possible with teachers of all the subjects!
Book Creator
Book Creator is a tool that can be used to demonstrate knowledge and express creativity. I started using Book Creator with my technology classes and quickly discovered it has a broad range of uses. I coordinate annual professional development for my colleagues, which helps teachers see its use to create digital projects in their classes. It’s become a great tool all educators are using in support of the read, write, discuss protocol. Sometimes the read, write, discuss assignment is as simple as an exit ticket, sometimes it morphs into a larger project. Book Creator allow students to create anything from a simple book, to a lab report, or even a digital portfolio. I worked with one teacher to create a journal that included a page for each read, write, discuss article that the students completed. Book Creator allows students to share their work making it easy to collaborate and give feedback to each other. It also sparks creativity and promotes student voice as it has options to make graphic novels or comic books. They can include videos, music and even their own voice on the page. It further supports literacy when they are reading each other’s creations.
Discovery Education Experience
Discovery Education Experience is available as a resource for all schools in New Hampshire through a partnership with the New Hampshire Department of Education. It’s a great resource because of the Channels (curated content collections) which give teachers and students easy-to-find and use information sources and activities. Being able to select a grade level, filter results, and sort for relevance or currency makes it so simple for anyone trying to find information. In support of the read, write, discuss initiative, I have been showing teachers how to use the Discovery Education Experience channels to find and use appropriate content for their students. There are other gems such as the SOS Top Ten: Science strategies, which are particularly helpful supporting the different levels of science classes a teacher might have. In my own Introduction to Technology class I have used Six Word Story strategy as a tool to have my students summarize videos, articles and podcasts we have used in class. This combination of Channels and SOS Strategies provides a strong tool for all of our staff to be able to connect with their students and also to incorporate the literacy protocol into their day to day instruction. It’s worth noting that this resource provides a number of reading supports in their content that students can leverage on their own
Our district has been incorporating the read, write, discuss initiative for almost two school years. In working with students as they read, write and discuss, I have learned that fear and uncertainty are big factors when students are asked to write. Many lack confidence and are afraid to write down the “wrong” answer when tasked with writing and discussing what they have read. I found it helpful to start with a shorter task, like a six word story, move them up to paraphrasing a paragraph or two, and then have them write a short paper or create a book in Book Creator. This progression helped students build their confidence in their writing as they moved forward.
Differentiation not only applies to student learning, but also to the educators that I work with. Supporting read, write, discuss is an easy fit for some subjects but for others is a serious challenge. Over these past two years I have found ways to reframe challenges when working with educators, encouraging them to view obstacles as opportunities for learning, growth, and innovation. As a team we have focused on solutions and had wonderful brainstorming opportunities to find ways to encourage ourselves and our students to branch out by using new ideas and technology, all in the name of improving literacy. New initiatives always bring uncertainty and struggles, I have found that this particular initiative has given me a wonderful opportunity to assist educators through the use of our library resources. While the natural relationships that I have with many of our educators are amazing, it has been a great learning experience and challenge for me to find ways to help other departments that I have not previously worked with. I have been able to foster new foundations of collaboration throughout my school.
Subscribe to edCircuit to stay up to date on all of our shows, podcasts, news, and thought leadership articles.
