Curriculum Development for Teaching Literacy and Research Skills in Collaboration with Science Teachers Grades 1-8 Samuel Jackendoff: Curriculum Supervisor for Library & Info. Sciences, Pittsburgh Public Schools Dr. Mary Kay Biagini: Director, School Library Certification Program, SIS, University of Pittsburgh Dr. David Hanauer: Professor, English Department, Indiana University of Pennsylvania Julie Bittner: Graduate Student, School Library Certification Program, University of Pittsburgh Valerie Cummings: Graduate Student, School Library Certification Program, University of Pittsburgh Patrick Hickey: Graduate Student, School Library Certification Program, University of Pittsburgh

Improving Literacy Through School Libraries grant  “This program helps local education authorities improve reading achievement by providing students with increased access to up-to- date school library materials; well-equipped, technologically advanced school library media centers; and professionally certified school library media specialists.” 1 1

Improving Literacy Through School Libraries grant  Federal grant from the US Department of Education  PPS awarded the grant in July 2008, grant began September 1, 2008 and closes August 31, 2009.

An idea is born…  Need for collaboration among district teacher- librarians and science teachers  Partnership with Dr. Biagini and the University of Pittsburgh  Books vs. technology, database subscriptions not sustainable  Bringing in the pedagogical base (Dr. Hanauer, IUP)

Why science?  Teaching information literacy skills, science is the context  Many science books in PPS library collections were outdated (~25 years old)  Encourage collaboration between teacher- librarians and science teachers  Curriculum revision, more opportunity for innovation. Curriculum supervisor for science was also willing to collaborate  Addition of science to PSSA testing

Funding  Grant total amount = $477,080  Personnel = $118,000  Books = $340,000  Travel = $1200 to attend mandated session in Washington, DC  Etc = $0

Process  Selection of resources by graduate students in SLCP  Pool of resources established; of these, sample copies were purchased and librarians were invited to view and select the best resources

Process  Votes tallied to establish a core science collection for grades 1-8. Each school would receive this core collection of books  50 schools – 20 K-5, 20 K-8,  Books ordered and processed centrally by PPS  “Creative educators” write lesson plans

Selection process  Topics were selected by the science department, based on the FOSS curricular units. They were then clarified by the team based on availability of resources.  Two topics per grade for 1-5, one topic per grade for 6-8  Collection development team searched selection sources from the previous year  Sources used: Science Books and Films, School Library Journal, VOYA, Booklist, Kirkus Reviews

Subjects  Grade 1: Animal adaptations and Dinosaurs; Pebbles, sand and silt  Grade 2: Air and weather; Insects  Grade 3: Food webs; Earth materials  Grade 4: Plants; Animals  Grade 5: Environment; Water  Grade 6: Space  Grade 7: Biomes  Grade 8: Energy transformations

Lists of Recommended Titles

Collaboration  Inviting science teachers and librarians to vote on books  “Creative educators” recruited to help develop lessons  Information literacy units changed as the project progressed [eg., “physics of sound,” & inventors were dropped as the science curriculum changed and/or there weren’t sufficient new & good materials available]

Library Lessons  Each subject was developed into a unit of four lessons  Lessons designed to stand alone so that librarians could adapt and use what they needed  Creative educators (teacher-librarians) developed lessons

Library Lessons

Project Promotion Principals and teacher-librarians get the word out with promotional mugs Project presented in conjunction with the PPS Summer Reading List launch

Keeping organized  Creative educators met bi-weekly to discuss writing lesson plans  Lessons were circulated via for comment  Graduate student assistants created collaborative bibliographies using GoogleDocs  Excel spreadsheets were created for managing the grant budget

Where are we now?  Books are currently being ordered  Approximately 17,500 total books purchased  425 individual titles  Project helped galvanize the Library Services department, promote communication between librarians

Questions? All of the lessons from this project will be available at teachlibrary.wikispaces.com