Library Learning Commons Essential Question
Hello All,
If you have been following my posts about teaching and learning in the 21st century, welcome back. If you are new to my blog then thank you for joining and please feel free to leave a comment below.
Just to reintroduce myself, my name is Ashley and I am an elementary school teacher. I have a passion for teaching "tiny humans" through inquiry and have had a love of reading from a very young age. As a child, library was one of my favourite parts of school because it was an opportunity to learn new things and go on exciting adventures through the pages of a book. To meld my passions together I am hoping to one day become a teacher-librarian.
I am in a new course this semester and have been assigned the task of creating a learning curation, guided by an essential question of my choosing. Picking a question has been challenging but I have been told that it will most likely change throughout the course.
My Essential Question:
How does the library learning commons support inquiry within an early years framework?
The Learning Commons
The library learning commons serves a greater purpose than just a book rental service. The learning commons is meant to be the hub of the school in which everyone is welcome and engaged in both roles as teachers and learners (CLA, 2014). Staff and students should have access to the learning materials, technology, and spaces within the learning commons. It is the responsibility of the teacher-librarian to co-create a learning environment with staff, students, and administrators that is functional and inspiring. Long gone are the days of the librarian shushing students as they enter the space. Instead, communication, collaboration, and questioning is encouraged.
To answer this question I look to the BC Redesigned Curriculum. The Redesigned Curriculum lends itself to inquiry through its open-ended Big Ideas and its focus on competencies rather than content. Inquiry is embedded throughout the curriculum and it enables students to learn through their own personal interests. Additionally, the BC Early Learning Framework,"has adopted the term “living inquiry” (formerly called areas of learning) to describe processes of thinking and learning that happen as children, educators, materials, and ideas interconnect. The term “living” suggests that these processes are ongoing and always evolving. “Inquire” means to pay attention in multiple ways—to study, explore, experiment, and ask questions" (BC Ministry of Education, 2018, p.9). It is evident that inquiry is a driving force in the education of the 21st century learner.
As I was searching for examples of inquiry within the learning commons for children in the early years, I came across a video from the Richmond School District which just so happens to be where I went to school when I was a child. The video describes learning commons throughout the district and how they support student learning. A teacher from Kidd Elementary said it best, "Curriculum is not about delivering content. Curriculum is about discovering it together. So the library is a place that is going to empower each and every learner to take their curiousity one step further with guidance and assistance" (Vandy Advani, 2019).
If you have been following my posts about teaching and learning in the 21st century, welcome back. If you are new to my blog then thank you for joining and please feel free to leave a comment below.
Just to reintroduce myself, my name is Ashley and I am an elementary school teacher. I have a passion for teaching "tiny humans" through inquiry and have had a love of reading from a very young age. As a child, library was one of my favourite parts of school because it was an opportunity to learn new things and go on exciting adventures through the pages of a book. To meld my passions together I am hoping to one day become a teacher-librarian.
I am in a new course this semester and have been assigned the task of creating a learning curation, guided by an essential question of my choosing. Picking a question has been challenging but I have been told that it will most likely change throughout the course.
My Essential Question:
How does the library learning commons support inquiry within an early years framework?
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| https://imgur.com/mRtO6WA.jpg |
The Learning Commons
The library learning commons serves a greater purpose than just a book rental service. The learning commons is meant to be the hub of the school in which everyone is welcome and engaged in both roles as teachers and learners (CLA, 2014). Staff and students should have access to the learning materials, technology, and spaces within the learning commons. It is the responsibility of the teacher-librarian to co-create a learning environment with staff, students, and administrators that is functional and inspiring. Long gone are the days of the librarian shushing students as they enter the space. Instead, communication, collaboration, and questioning is encouraged.
"It is designed to engineer and drive future-oriented learning and teaching throughout the entire school. Inquiry, project/problem-based learning experiences are designed as catalysts for intellectual engagement with information, ideas, thinking, and dialogue. Reading thrives, learning literacies and technology competencies evolve, and critical thinking, creativity, innovation and playing to learn are nourished."
The learning commons sounds like a wonderful place to learn and explore but how do we achieve such a program that fits within the parameters of elementary school, and more specifically, the early years?
The Curriculum
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Inquiry in ActionAs I was searching for examples of inquiry within the learning commons for children in the early years, I came across a video from the Richmond School District which just so happens to be where I went to school when I was a child. The video describes learning commons throughout the district and how they support student learning. A teacher from Kidd Elementary said it best, "Curriculum is not about delivering content. Curriculum is about discovering it together. So the library is a place that is going to empower each and every learner to take their curiousity one step further with guidance and assistance" (Vandy Advani, 2019).
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sadWGKFs4k&feature=youtu.be)
I look forward to diving deeper into my own inquiry over the span of this course and applying what I learn to my teaching as a primary educator and potential teacher-librarian.
References
BC Ministry of Education. (n.d.). BC's New Curriculum. Retrieved from https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/
BC Ministry of Education. (2018). Early Learning Framework. Retrieved from https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/early-learning/teach/earlylearning/draft_early_learning_framework_2018.pdf
Canadian Library Association. (2014) Leading learning: Standards of practice for school library learning commons in Canada. (Links to an external site.) Ottawa:ON
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