Vignettes which illustrate library role in school restructuring

[JCONSTANT@UMASSD.EDU]

Dear LM_NET Colleagues:

        Our state curriculum frameworks committees have asked us to write
vignettes which illustrate how the library media center fits into our common
core of learning and restructuring. I have written the following vignette,
and am asking for your opinions, suggestions for improvement, etc. I plan to
send it email to our state library media association, so I want it to be as
good as it can be. My example is for high school, but you may have other
examples for middle and/or elementary school which you might also like to
share. If you do, perhaps you might also want to post them to the net.


BEGINNING OF VIGNETTE

Vignette: Interdisciplinary High School Library Media Activity:
        Semester Unit on Human Genome Project


     Smithfield High School sophomores are working on a semester long project
which involves classes in Science, Social Science and English/Language Arts.

     Sue's Science class is researching the Human Genome Project in the
Library Media Center in conjunction with a ten part videoconference. Her
librarian helps her to access and extract relevant information from Biology
Digest online, and also to post some of her findings to the Genome Conference
on the Mass Ed Online LearnNEt. Sue also uses this conference to ask the
presenter questions that couldn't be asked during the teleconferences.

      In her Social Science class, Sue studies the ethical implications of
genetic research in preparation for a debate. At the library media center,
her librarian helps her access and extract relevant information about
different points of view from the Readers Guide, Social Issues Resources, the
Opposing Viewpoints Series, and the library's pamphlet collection.

     Sue's  English teacher and librarian help her to organize her written
reports and her oral presentations. Since the debate will be televised and
broadcast over the local cable television network, Sue's library media
specialist, English teacher and Social Studies teacher all collaborate on the
production. The English/Language Arts teacher coaches the class on
presentation skills and rhetoric, while the Social Studies teacher coaches
them on their grasp of relevant facts.

     Sue continues to add materials to her portfolio which will demonstrate
her mastery of essential skills. Her Science teacher is having the class
prepare Hypercard stacks about their findings on genetic research. Sue's
library media specialist helps her select visual materials to photograph.
These photos will be digitized and imported into the Hypercard stack. The
resulting images will be accompanied by captions and text describing medical
research on genetic diseases. Also included will be segments of taped
interviews which Sue has conducted with local doctors and nurses about
genetic diseases in Smithfield.

     Sue's library media specialist will have played a central role in
helping her to determine her information needs, access and extract relevant
information, understand and synthesize that information and present it to
others. For this to have happened, the broad range of resources in the
library media center would have been carefully selected to support the
curriculum.

     Since the school library media center belongs to a regional multitype
library, the school library media specialist would have also use the online
public access terminal to obtain interlibrary loan items from local public,
university and museum libraries. Books would arrive in a day or so, and
periodicals could be faxed immediately.  She would have used the Internet to
help Sue contact experts who could serve as her mentors.


     As a team player, the school library media specialist would have
collaborated with Sue's teachers on the preparation of this unit, on its
development and on the evaluation of the final product. The team will have
also collaborated on the evaluation of student progress, not only in content
knowledge, but also in information acquisition, use and presentation. Sue is
lucky to have such a team working for her. Her portfolio will demonstrate
that, as  an effective and efficient user of information, Sue has been well
prepared for the responsibilities  of citizenship and the requirements of
the marketplace.
END OF VIGNETTE


Thank you for any suggestions you make about improving this vignette, or for
any additional vignettes you might want to share. Don't be afraid to hurt my
feelings if you don't like it. I want it to be the best possible example I
could give to show how we help students to achieve the SCANS competencies and
Goals 2000.  I welcome seeing your examples too. If we share the wealth, we
can present a much better argument for making school library media centers
part of the instructional team.I'm hoping that you will post your
contributions to the net for all of us, but if you decide not to , you could
email them to me at the following:
                                        jconstant@umassd.edu



Thanks again for anything you are willing to share!

                                        Jane Constant
                                        Reference Librarian
                                        B.M.C. Durfee High School
                                        360 Elsbree Street
                                        Fall River, MA 02720

                                        Fax: (508)675-8186
                                        Phone: (508) 675-8124