Podcast Season 2 Ep. 5 - Inquiry Learning with Teacher Librarian Andrea LaPointe
Andrea has a Masters in Teacher Librarianship from the University of Alberta and has been working as a teacher librarian at the Surrey District for over 17 years. Currently she is the Teacher Librarian Helping Teacher role bringing leadership and support to the 140 Teacher Librarians in the Surrey School District. She is experienced with working to help students of all ages explore their learning goals and building community through the School Library Learning Commons.She is skilled in Staff Development, Strategic Planning, and Library Instruction.
Andrea discusses some of the challenges of working as a teacher librarian and also shares her passion for inquiry based learning with some thoughts about how to collaborate with other teachers in the classroom.
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Podcast Transcript
Hi, my name is Blue. And I'm the host of this podcast, the 21st-Century Teacher with Live It Earth. And my job is to ensure that our teachers and students get the most out of our programs. This new podcast series is just one of the ways I'm going to be supporting our community of educators, with a monthly conversation with a special guest educator discussing a different aspect of 21st century teaching and learning.
A reminder that if you are a teacher in British Columbia, thanks to Focused Education Resources, you now have access to our hybrid learning library. If you would like more information about our blended learning programs please visit our website liveit.earth.
I am grateful to be living and working in Nelson, British Columbia, where this podcast is recorded. I would like to acknowledge our ancestors and the keepers of the land that have walked before us. This is the traditional territory of a number of first nations groups, traditional territory of the Sinix(t), the Syilx and the K’tanaxa peoples as well; this area is home to the Metis and many diverse indigenous groups.
Today I am talking to Andrea LaPointe, an experienced teacher librarian with a Master's Degree focused in Teacher Librarianship from University of Alberta. She has worked in the Surrey District (the largest in British Columbia) for over 17 years.
Andrea is currently in the Teacher Librarian Helping Teacher role bringing leadership and support to the 140 Teacher Librarians in the District.
Andrea, thank you so much for joining me today on the podcast. I really appreciate you taking the time.
Thanks for having me! I'm really excited to have a chat with you.
So let's dive straight into my first question. And actually, I could say first, congratulations to the district, because I know that you're the winner of this year's Leading Learning Implementation Award from the Canadian School Libraries. So maybe we can start there. Could you just tell us more about that?
You bet. I'm just so excited to represent my colleagues in talking about this. There's about 150 teacher librarians in my District. And I have the sincere privilege of working with all of them in my district position. And we are strongly supported in our roles by our School District, by our local Surrey chapter of the BC Teacher Librarian Association, as well as our provincial chapter. And so all together, we have just been able to accomplish so much in Surrey, both in setting up Library Learning Commons. And really, at the heart of that is the work of the teacher librarian in the space. So Leading Learning is a document that the Canadian School Library Association, created in consultation with teacher librarians from every province and territory in Canada. And it's our guiding document for our profession, across the country. And it pretty much outlines each little piece of what a Library Learning Commons model looks like in the school library, setting the K to 12 setting. So everything from teacher librarian supporting school goals, to teacher librarians advancing literacy, every little piece of our job is part of this document. And the award is given every year to a district that is making significant progress in developing their Library Learning Commons, and seeing impact on student learning through teacher librarianship. So myself and two of my colleagues put together our application, we had a plethora of references from around our district in support of the work that we're doing. And I did a serious happy dance when I found out that my colleagues and our district were being honored with this award because it's really deserving. And yeah, so it's just been a really exciting boost to our morale and our community to keep up the really great work that's happening here every year.
Fantastic. Well, congratulations again. And so leading into the next question that I have for you. I'm really interested to hear about this. Now, what are some of the modern challenges of a teacher librarian?
I think I can speak to two large general hurdles that we have as teacher librarians. And I think most usually brands across Canada would nod their heads in agreement that our two largest hurdles are time and money. We have a really strong teacher librarian to student ratio in British Columbia, 1 teacher librarian full time for every 720 students, In Surrey, our ratio is even stronger, we have a full time teacher librarian for every 500 students. But even then, the job is so massive that you know, teacher librarians are picking up many balls to run a program that embodies being that learning hub of the school. So the demand on teacher librarians to be teaching information and digital literacy skills, which an example of that would be like teaching our students about fake news and how to navigate information in very rapidly evolving digital age. So teacher librarians, supporting student learning around these hot topics, information, digital literacy, as well as building and curating library collections, and being collaborative partners to their teaching peers in the school, supporting administrators in developing and implementing school goals as educational leaders, there's just so much on our plates that we could do. And I think, you know, putting that all into a school year on one person is, it's a tall order, so more time would be wonderful. And then there are, there's so many demands as well on our funding across the school and the school district, that teacher librarians are wanting really culturally relevant collections that are reflective of their students, as well as have technology and digital tools that support communicating student learning in variety ways like 3d printers and robots. And as well as having innovative feeling spaces for students who want to come and can work together and can also work on their own. So the funding demands for putting all those things together are quite high. And so more time and more money would allow us to actualize more of the goals that we have. But I will proudly share that I have visited teacher librarians across my district and been in contact with teacher librarians in our province and across Canada. And significantly creative people just doing the best with what they have.
Yeah, thanks for sharing. I have another question. I may come back to you if we have time that relates to that. But I want to dive in. And I'm really interested to hear what you have to share about inquiry based learning. So I'm wondering, what are the first steps a teacher takes to initiate a culture of inquiry?
I really had a major shift in my thinking around inquiry based learning in the last year. And I want to thank specifically, a teacher. She is part of the Instructional Leadership team in the Central Okanagan School District in Kelowna. Her name is Marni Berkland. And her and her leadership team have a tremendous amount of resources around building a culture of inquiry. And they lean into a lot of the leaders in the agree field Cath Murdoch, for example. And this thinking about building a culture of inquiry, of curiosity, of responsiveness to students really meet some of the equity and inclusion goals that I have been thinking about in terms of an approach to teaching. So I'm thankful that I reframed what I used to think about inquiry as more of a process of learning that felt a little bit more linear, as well as messy. But this building a culture of inquiry, really focuses on a community together learning. And it centers student voice, which increases student agency over their learning. And the first step to that is that teachers need to know their students. So that takes intentional relationship building and a lot of listening, asking questions of your students, gathering information about their strengths, about the competencies, that they're developing areas of growth that you want to support. And that, you know, that initial understanding of who's in the room is really truly the first step because a culture of inquiry is student centered, it is responsive to students and doesn't go anywhere if you're not sure who those students are, who the learners are.
Yeah, that's great. Yeah, fantastic answer. And that being said, the lesson plan is in many ways the cornerstone of teaching. And traditionally, as a facilitator, it prepares the teacher for the skills, the strategies that they're imparting to their students. So, how does the teacher flick the switch? And unplan? Can you unpack that for us?
Sure. This is again, a term I've taken from Marnie Berkland, the “unplanning”. And what that looks like in practice, is teachers really having a hold on what their curricular goals are, what their learning goals are. So content, yes, but also the core and curricular competencies, what do we want our students to be able to do? And understand as well as what we want them to know. So we have all that kind of being held loosely in our hands while we're getting to know our students, and presenting them with a provocation for learning. So beginning a learning journey with our students, and then taking again that time to know what area of curricular content topic are they interested in. So I also read a great book called “Make One Change” recommended to me by Trevor MacKenzie. And I love the reframing of instead of asking the question which we have a programmed response to answer a question, but presenting a topic or an idea. And having given space for your students to ask, ask their questions about the topic, what did they want to know about some about the topic that you're presenting. So the unplanning looks like giving, giving an opportunity to our students to articulate their thinking, to, you know, work together and to communicate their ideas and their questions. And all the while the teacher collecting that information to then craft the next learning opportunity. So it's a very responsive way of teaching, it does not mean showing up with no plan, there is a plan to engage your students in a learning goal. And that could even be articulated very strongly to our students. Our goal today is to learn how to ask open questions. And so when I'm posing a topic to you, you know, we're going to record all of the questions we have about the topic, and then we're going to learn what an open question is, and what a close question is, and we're going to sort them. And then we're going to decide which questions are really important to us that we want to pursue answers to. That'd be an example of how I would begin an inquiry in an unplanned way. So I know my curricular goals, which guide my formative and summative assessment practices, I might even have those articulated. But the students are leading me in the direction of their interests throughout the course of an inquiry.
Yeah, I love that. And I love the idea of building that curiosity and encouraging a curiosity around the learning but the students doing. So I want to just circle back to something you said earlier, and something you just mentioned again, which is time, so it takes time to get to know your students. And so, time is an issue. We know that. So I'm interested to know like, how can you know, and we can talk about our resource Live It Earth, but it could be any resource like, how can a resource library like Live It Earth help teachers with this inquiry based learning? If you have any tips around that? I mean, is there any time saving tools by using a digital resource that we can sort of implement into the classroom environment? Like how do we do that?
Yeah, I think it'd be prudent to have a teacher when they know they're going to present a particular area of learning or a topic that's from our content, they know they're going to kind of be starting with that. Taking part of the unplanning beginning would be to just decide what instructional strategies you might want to use to get your students making their thinking visible. What resources are available to me, print resources of various formats, with digital resources, including video streaming and information databases. What primary sources can I input into this? What do the families of my community this classroom maybe have to offer? So just brainstorming all the things you have, any artifacts that can bring into spark curiosity? But something I love about a digital resource like Live It Earth is they are connected to topics that are in our curricular areas, so especially strong for our elementary students, you know, teachers who are going to explore. I know Mars is one of the modules that you have. Maybe there is a topic that connects to that. And teachers having time to explore the different resources really helps them then pull them in when the timing is right. So I would myself in thinking about pre planning an inquiry, I would look for resources, both digital and print and other sources that I might be able to just oh, hey, student, expressed interest in this type of thing, I know, I can pull that out of the Mars module level, Live It Earth, and I can engage the whole class and learning about that. So that would be my tip. And I know that there is a resource in Live It Earth to search the BC curriculum and see the connections. In the various modules, things like that are really helpful, a variety of our digital resources have that capability. The National Film Board does as well. And but I think my strongest tip, and I know this is going to come as a shock to Blue. But the strongest tip I have is to connect with your teacher librarian, because they are resource specialists. So they do spend the time curating very intentionally their print collection. But as well, they're very in tune with the digital resources available in each district. So I know in Surrey, our teacher librarians know very well the variety of resources available online that are both for teachers and for students. And some of the adaptive technologies for our emerging readers, or ELL learners are really outstanding in the digital resources. And also, I know that digital resources like Live It Earth come in both French and English, which strongly supports our French Immersion learners. So lots of advantages to connecting with your teacher librarian who has a handle on just what what information and what resources are available to classroom teachers.
And so what does collaborative relationship look like between a teacher and a teacher librarian? Especially with, you know, very recently, especially with the pandemic, you've been flooded with new digital resources? Now, I imagine it's quite overwhelming.
I love that you asked this question. At its best, it looks like a teacher, a classroom teacher, and a teacher librarian sitting down together and doing a little pre planning. Like agreeing and understanding the learning goals, the competencies that are going to be developed, some of these instructional strategies and resources that might be touched on initially planning a provocation for inviting the students into learning. It's also a conversation between the two of them, especially with specialty areas. So the teacher is going to share all that they know about their students, because the teacher librarian may or may not have a lot of contact with that group of students to that point. So you know, what are the strengths in the room, what is every student going to show up and add to the culture of inquiry, and that's a really important piece of inquiry is knowing what every learner is going to add to the room. And acknowledging that we're all learners in the room, and all can be teachers, everyone has something to bring. So that information might need to be shared, and the teacher librarians sharing like, oh, you know, I'm an information specialist, and I have all these resources at my disposal. And I've a lot of access to this type of technology that we could use to support learners or the learners could use to communicate their learning. So that collaborative planning and then co teaching. So two in the room is better than one. So two teachers supporting that work, and then also co assessing. And that's not just the teacher and the teacher librarian. That's also the students involved in that process. So that is collaboration at its best. It's just everyone bringing all their strengths to the table to offer really open learning opportunities where all students can be successful.
I'm interested in Surrey, and within your group of TLs, is there any particular resource like online resource, like using Google Classroom? Or like how does how does the tracking work? How’re you collaborating in that way? Is there a particular program software that you use?
We use Microsoft Office 365 as a communication tool, and there's some really strong collaborative tools online, but nothing beats just sitting around a table conversation type of work. So while we can look to those and lean on them when we need to, I think having eyeballs to eyeballs and teaching students how to also talk to each other, how to listen, how to ask each other questions. And you know, that's a really important part of the culture of inquiry is students buying into the co learning together.
Yeah, I love that. So in terms of the inquiry learning, I'm interested to ask you about inquiry for equity. Can you explain how the two of these are related in education?
I think the working definition I have of equity includes all students accessing opportunities in supports they need to make growth in their learning. So in saying that, I think when a student is part of a culture, part of a class, where all students are valued, all students can share and be heard and what they say matters. And what they say, actually has impact on what's happening in the classroom, their agency over their own learning goes through the roof. And when students are being, when teachers are responding to students needs, and thinking about each learner in the room having strengths to offer others, then students have more opportunity to access different ways of learning, ways of communicating, ways of sharing and growing, thinking. So well, the community is on a journey together, every student might be thinking about the same thing in a different way. But when their voice is valued, when they see that their voice is important, and there's response to it, and it might change the direction of learning, then they have the access to growing in the way that they need to so whether that's in understanding content, or growing their core or curricular competencies, whatever their learning goals are, there's opportunity there for them.
So it's really about creating a safe space for the students in that room, to feel that they're free to express themselves in a way that feels right for them.
Yeah, we can go right back to what we talked about at the beginning. It's all about relationships, and those relationships being developed between teachers and students and students and students. So that everyone in the room believes that they're bringing something to the community that no one else can say there, that they're important. They're a part of a learning community. And they are valued. And that sense of belonging is really crucial to the culture of inquiry.
Yeah, no, I love that. And so all that being said, we kind of, sort of go back to the time issue. And I'm wondering if you have found, you know, in the last couple of years or so, which have been very busy and very tense with the pandemic, of course, as well. Have you got any time saving tips, like any, any things that have really worked well, for you?
I actually think it's, what I would recommend the most is to shift your mindset. So when you know your curriculum really well, and you start to go down and engage your students in it in an inquiry, I think you'll realize really soon how slowly you need to teach, but also how much is being learned in the process. So cross curricular connections are being made without even trying, you'll start to see oh, I know that I can connect that to the PHE curriculum. I know just, you know, doing this mini lesson will help my students become more proficient at being descriptive writers. And it's embedded right into the inquiry. So especially at the elementary level, when we're teaching all the different curriculums that's an advantage to this, but it absolutely can be done K through 12. Knowing that we are all focused on the foundational learnings and numeracy and literacy, that every teacher is responsible for building that into the learning. Teaching with a culture of inquiry really lends itself to that. So I want to give you something really tangible, but I really would say that the tip I have is just to give yourself the freedom to slow down and to teach with more depth. And I think that you're going to see that you will give your students more opportunities to get engaged in the curricular competencies than you're even going to plan for. You'll look back and be like, Oh wow, we actually did this and this and this and this without even trying? Because in order to really engage in inquiry, a lot of those curricular competencies are skills that students need to practice and learn and, and grow in?
Do you have any particular tools that you like, whether online or not? The self assessment? Are there any particular worksheets? Or things that you like to do and that self reflection? Or is it different for every student? Like how does that look?
I think sticking with the theme of being responsive to students, we lean to their strengths. So if we have students in our class, who are really strong storytellers, we allow them to reflect on their learning in a narrative way. We have students in our classroom who are very gifted artists, their reflection on their learning is going to be more powerful if they're allowed to express that in a way that is through their strength. So I know for me, I find, reflecting and writing a really powerful exercise, because I can bring them for lack of a better word, and go back and edit and rethink and pull in other ideas that allows me that opportunity. So I would say being responsive to our students strengths, if we really want to hear from them on how they feel they did in their learning. And then it also comes down to crafting the right questions, those really open ended questions that were not leading them to a particular answer, but really allowing them to reflect on the learning goals. So they should know what the learning goal was, and connect it to the opportunity that they had to learn and then be able to articulate in a way that is a strength of theirs, to reflect on their progress towards that particular learning goal.
Thank you so much for sharing, taking the time and sharing these thoughts around inquiry learning and the life of a teacher librarian in Surrey.
Thank you for having me and for sharing Live It Earth, this fantastic resource. I love that it's such a locally focused resource, that it's available in French and English and I'm thrilled to share it with the teacher librarians. So thank you also for supporting us in using that.
Thanks for joining us on the 21st-Century Teacher, and we look forward to seeing you next time. Please do subscribe so you don't miss out on the next show. And also don't forget to check out our fantastic online learning platform, which is liveit.earth. Thanks again and we'll see you soon.