By Elaine Young
Nottingham Public School was honoured to receive the inaugural Donald Hamilton Advocacy Grant. The grant proposal was focused on using technology to leverage advocacy. With the money awarded we purchased an iPad and supported our Living Library Event in partnership with the Town of Ajax. Students used the iPad to communicate with the community, the Durham District School Board, staff, family and friends. They did this using an online link to post about why the School Library Learning Commons (SLLC) was so important to their learning as students and why we should continue to support its existence. Reviewing their submissions, it was clear that what they felt was important was aligned with the Foundations for School Learning Commons in Canada: A Framework for Success. This included a focus on the essential elements of student success such as participatory learning environments, diverse learning resources, expert instruction and guidance and active learning experience. From the mouth of babes: they understand that the critical foundations of the library learning commons are those participatory environments that evolve a school library to a SLLC.
Our Advocacy Goals:
Leveraging Technology:
Communicating with technology may seem second nature to students, but understanding how to communicate with a goal in mind is just as important in the digital world as the physical one. For our project we wanted to help the community around us better understand what the school library learning commons was about. We hoped to increase participation in the programs and activities that were provided through the SLLC. Students had agency over what they shared with the community. This lowered the barrier to entry by allowing any student to contribute regardless of their writing ability.
Strengthening Community with our Municipality:
We often say that SLLC aren’t like the school libraries we had at school, but how do we share that idea with the community in a way they can understand? One way is by seeing it in action. We did this by partnering with the Town of Ajax to host the Living Library Event. For those who have never heard of Living Libraries, the idea is to bring in community members to share experiences. Students ‘check out’ community members to chat with and hear their experiences. This served dual-purposes in helping Grade 7 students hear community members stories, but also allowed the students to share their SLLC stories with community. By partnering with our municipality we were able to increase our visibility in the community and communicate the importance of the SLLC in modern teaching and learning.
Creating a Consciousness of Advocacy:
Having introduced the Library Learning Commons model, how do we make sure our stakeholders are aware of the central role this change plays in student learning? We hope this project allows us to continue to strengthen, validate and increase our support from those stakeholders such as our School Community Council, School Board, Municipality and perhaps even our provincial Government.
There may be times when our advocacy will become more urgent than other times. This project’s main objective was to share what exactly we were advocating for and showing how these spaces are crucial to student learning and success. This project laid the groundwork. When the time arrives for us to request specific action, we hope this groundwork prepares those stakeholders to fulfill those requests, but for people to commit to action they have to truly understand the importance of what they are supporting. This takes time which was why this advocacy continues.
Our Project:
Using Student Voice:
We approached advocacy with students as appreciating the importance of having a Teacher Librarian and a thriving library space. Many of the students were aware of the concepts of funding, policy and equity, and when they made the connection, they wanted to advocate for our Library Learning Commons.
At our school we have a student-led news called the Nottingham News Crew that runs out of the SLLC. Through them we shared information about the grant. Getting the iPad allowed us to start collecting pictures for the News Crew, without it we had no way to get pictures as students couldn’t use their own devices. The News Crew chose what pictures to share and how to communicate.
Focusing on our Community Connection: The Living Library
Another part of our grant was to honour our volunteers for the Living Library with gifts. We used the concept of the Living Library to support anti-oppressive practices as well as oral storytelling in our space.
We partnered with the Town of Ajax who holds an annual Living Library. This year, we invited people who also volunteered with the Town of Ajax as well as someone from our parent community. Our focus was on Grade 7 students, although we encouraged oral sharing of stories to all of our students. We gave students cards so that they knew who they were going to listen to. As much as the speakers had a story to share, students were encouraged to ask questions. So we gave them prompts to support them.
We gave students a library card with some questions to give them some guidance on what they could ask them. Even though the volunteers had stories to share, it could be a two way conversation where everyone could interact. Students had the opportunity to listen to stories from a person of a diverse background and learn more about the world around them through this connection. Barriers could be broken in order to create great space for a more anti-oppressive community. Throughout the year, we also encouraged students to share their stories and to have conversations. We had circle time with student agreements.
Community Involvement:
Staff and Students from the Nottingham News Crew shared pictures that they felt were important to show the community. They went through the pictures that they tookwith the iPad and included them with a description on the live link that was shared with the community.
Without the grant, we would not have been able to fully embrace student voice and agency in sharing why the Library Learning Commons was an important space to them.The students were also very excited to share with their peers, family, staff and community members why this is such a crucial part of their learning. The students felt it was important to share that our community was kind, caring and inclusive. Being anti-oppressive is a big part of the Library Learning Commons. Students know that the Library Learning Commons can work effectively if we share space with everything in an equitable manner.
Conclusion:
The grant allowed us to partner more effectively with our community members by allowing us to give our volunteers gifts to show our appreciation. We were also thankful for the iPad which allowed students to not only have a voice but agency in advocating for the Library Learning Commons. They shared with the community what contributed to student success. This first step had simply been about bringing awareness of the need for advocacy and by communicating the importance of our Library Learning Commons. Our next steps would be looking at how we could increase our advocacy even further. Thank you so much to Canadian School Libraries for their support in building thriving Library Learning Commons spaces.