By Clare Froggatt and Kirsten Tootell
Shore School, Sydney supports excellence in education by providing fellowship grants that teachers can apply for annually to support professional development. In 2023, Kirsten and I were the fortunate recipients of the grant which provided us with the opportunity to travel to Toronto. At the time of our application, I was transitioning from classroom teacher (CT) to teacher librarian (TL) and had commenced my Master of Education (Teacher Librarian). Kirsten, as ICT coordinator, shared my passion for the scope of the library and learning together. We had a common goal to learn from the best in the world. Through our research we identified that the Library Learning Commons (LLC) model has revolutionized student and community engagement. We recognized that our school library was already a phenomenal space with a rich collection of books and resources for our students, however, we believed the full potential of the library to impact all stakeholders was yet to be fully realized. We wanted to see the school libraries in Toronto firsthand and meet the teacher librarians (TLs) and classroom teachers (CTs) to understand whether we might further improve the impact of the school library for the benefit of our students. Kirsten boldly reached out to Carol Koechlin via email, and we were elated to receive her prompt reply.
From Dream to Reality
Through Carol, our dream became a reality. The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) Library and the Peel District School Board Learning Resource teams responded and worked indefatigably to coordinate school visits that would showcase the LLCs in a variety of schools in Toronto across two school districts. We visited rural school libraries in the Peel District as well as inner city schools in the Toronto School District. We met with a variety of TLs, CTs, school principals and ICT specialists to discuss what they felt had the biggest impact on their success. Many shared the importance of working collaboratively both to plan and deliver programs, building on student interest, links to the curriculum, as well as being culturally responsive to the needs of individual students. TLs and ICT specialists discussed the challenges of shifting school culture when CTs preferred to drop students off to the library for the returning and borrowing of books, followed by a read aloud along with the problem of timetable constraints. Fortunately, the LLC model is strongly supported by the Toronto School District Board and external providers assist individual schools in making the necessary changes drawing on evidence-based research that exemplifies the benefits of collaborative programming and teaching.
As we reflected on those conversations, we discovered patterns and strategies that we believe will work in our context also. The Canadian schools, like us in Australia, have felt the impact of the global pandemic of COVID-19 which has left its mark on the wellbeing of students across all age groups. In addition to these concerns, the schools in Toronto are reimagining ways to combat the issues of racism, diversity, and equity by supporting students Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) with an emphasis on the need for joy in learning. As a result, the original document that first inspired our inquiry, Together for Learning (Ontario School Library Association, 2010), that undergirds the learning in the LLC was in the process of being rewritten during the time of our visit.
From Library to Library Learning Commons
By visiting schools, we gained fresh understanding as to why the school library is referred to as a library learning commons. The word ‘commons’ is important because the library is not just a space where children go to have lessons with the teacher librarian but rather it is a common space shared by all members of the school community. This is a place where teachers collaborate with one another, combine their unique passions and skills to plan engaging units of inquiry for the children they teach. Literature is at the heart of all learning and acts as a provocation to stimulate critical and creative thinking, and children are provided with a variety of ways to represent their understanding of what they’re learning. When planning literature response activities teachers choose to provide many unique opportunities to represent their understanding of the fiction and non-fiction texts they were exploring. Children engaged in a vast variety of deep learning opportunities including the manipulation of loose parts, coding explorations, woodwork, sewing, bracelet making, STEM inquiries to name a few. Integral to all these opportunities was a recognition that learners today need different opportunities to learners of the past.
In the LLC, worksheets, aside from graphic organizers, had little or no place as the children of today need opportunities for connection, creation, and critical thinking. Even the youngest learners were encouraged to consider the carefully curated collection of picture books and to have rich discussions about whether they could see themself in the text (mirrors) or learn about the lived experiences of others (windows) as well as entering into the story (glass sliding doors) to become a part of the world the author created. For this to be possible the TL is responsible to curate the library collection with deep consideration of the current needs of children in the school cohort. The Toronto District School Board and the Peel District School Board employ staff to assist the schools in their district with the process of weeding and purchasing books to ensure these are cultural and socially relevant to all families in the school community.
Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors
We discovered that all school libraries placed an emphasis on the importance of the book collection, both digital and print, to ensure that every child in school has access to texts where they can see themselves in the books. There were frequent references to a metaphor of books being ‘mirrors, windows and sliding glass doors.’ This means books are a mirror where children see their own lived experiences reflected, they are windows because they see outwardly to gain understanding on the way other people live their lives, and they are glass sliding doors that reflect the change that takes place in society as we learn to embrace diverse groups of people and celebrate opportunities for equity. The collection of books is regarded as a vital importance and individual schools are supported by the school board to ensure out of date books are weeded from the collection and new books are purchased frequently to be current to the community of learners. As a new TL, the emphasis that the school boards placed on the collection development gave me new insight and put flesh on my learning at university,
The LLC has been developed in response to the understanding that the library is no longer just a place to store print media and the traditional role of the TL has needed to change in response to a multimodal world. The library is referred to as the learning commons because every member of the teaching community has a responsibility to shape the learning that happens there. We witnessed the impact on learning when teachers, librarians and specialist teachers came together to plan collaborative learning experiences. This has been an adjustment for all schools that have moved towards the LLC model. The shift from the TL being the “keeper of books and reader of stories” to a leader and facilitator of learning across all areas of the curriculum involved many logistical changes to the timetable and schedule. Teachers and students were empowered to return, borrow and shelve their own books and read-alouds often became the responsibility of the CT. Through this shift the ICT specialist, the TL and the CT were free to plan and teach units of inquiry across all areas of the curriculum using quality fiction and non-fiction as a provocation for thinking. These rich teaching and learning experiences equip students with the research skills needed for 21st century learning.
In addition to the traditional library classroom, the LLC has a variety of flexible learning areas including calm spaces for mindfulness and maker-spaces to develop critical and creative thinking skills. The LLC is a vibrant learning space which is regarded by all as the hub and the heart of the school. Here, student voice and curiosity are recognised, and students have opportunities to explore their own questions, scaffolded and guided by skilled educators. Library maker-spaces provide multiple wellbeing benefits where making mistakes is part of the learning process and students develop resilience in collaboration with others.
Inquiry Projects Across the Curriculum: Start with a Story
We gained hands-on, practical experiences from many schools and heard first-hand the stories to enable us to learn from their successes and failures. We returned empowered to be strategic in the implementation of the LLC at Northbridge and established partnering projects with the teachers who were willing to be involved. Using the provocation, ‘start with a story’, we have connected inquiry projects across the curriculum.
One project that was a highlight last year combined STEM, music, history, service-learning, social and emotional learning, and literacy. For this project we used The Imagineer (Cheng, 2021) as our provocation. The learning was rich as students considered the needs of the residents they regularly visit at our local nursing home. They considered how they might repurpose loose parts to design and create musical instruments that would bring joy to these people. As part of their exploration, they researched the science of sound using nonfiction texts (physical and digital), explored sound making with percussion and the music creation and editing app, GarageBand. The students also wrote and illustrated their own narrative about why people need music. The children presented these stories to the residents along with the instruments they made. The joy was palpable.
The learning was rich as students considered the needs of the residents they regularly visit at our local nursing home. The children presented these stories to the residents along with the instruments they made. The joy was palpable.
Six months on, we continue to reflect, refine, and review our teaching practice drawing on the experience we had in Toronto. It is now the beginning of the school year here in Australia and we are excited to meet again with teachers to go deeper. We hope that this year we will reconnect with the exceptional educators we met in Toronto and establish opportunities for learning across the globe to equip our students with 21st century learning skills.
A special thank you to Carol Koechlin, Andrea Sykes, Melanie Mulcaster, Agnieszka Kopka and your teams for all your support with helping to make our trip to Toronto such a success.
References
Cheng, C. (2021). The imagineer (L. Masciullo, Illus.). National Library of Australia.
Ontario School Library Association (2010). Together for Learning: School Libraries and the Emergence of the Learning Commons.
Kirsten Tootell is the ICT Integrator and Service-Learning Coordinator at Sydney Church of England Grammar School (SHORE) Northbridge campus. She works alongside all teachers and students to develop digital literacy, citizenship, and service-learning initiatives for student wellbeing. Over her 20-year teaching career, working at schools in New Zealand, England and Australia, Kirsten has seen remarkable change in the way education is delivered to students. In particular, the impact of digital technologies has been profound. This has led Kirsten to see the tremendous potential of the Library Learning Commons model and Makerspaces to help cultivate agile thinking, critical inquiry, creativity, collaborative problem solving and the development of social and emotional skills. As a result of her passion in this area Kirsten has led change initiative, inspiring teachers to take risks in their lesson planning and supporting them in practical ways. The trip to Toronto has provided a fresh impetus to continue partnering projects with colleagues.
Clare Froggatt is Teacher Librarian at Sydney Church of England Grammar School (SHORE) Northbridge campus and is currently studying the Master of Education (Teacher Librarian) at Charles Sturt University (CSU). She has extensive teaching and leadership experience across primary and early childhood education having taught in faith-based, non-sectarian, single sex and co-educational independent schools. Having taught for over 30 years, Clare is passionate about student engagement and the benefits of social and emotional learning on academic achievement. She holds a Master of Education (Student Wellbeing) and loves teaching through the lens of inquiry. Through her recent study at CSU, Clare was introduced to the Library Learning Commons (LLC) model and was interested to read about the positive impact this model has on literacy achievement, digital literacy and mental health literacy fostering student wellbeing.
Our combined passions and complimentary skills led us to apply for the ‘James’ Fellowship research grant made available to teachers at Shore.