TO TEACHER EDUCATORS

Would you like to help pre-service teachers get the best out of their school library service?

"Faculties who prepare teacher-librarians ... need to do their part by finding ways to collaborate with faculties who prepare classroom teachers and other school professionals in order to raise awareness of the ways in which educators can work collaboratively to benefit all and provide opportunities for guided collaboration experiences during their pre-professional academic studies. For example, at Syracuse University, faculty from the School of Information Studies are collaborating with faculty from the School of Education on several projects that require students from both schools to work together. Through this experience, faculty have developed a better understanding of each other's fields, goals and needs and have become motivated to find ways to provide collaboration experiences to their students." (Small, Ruth V., Collaboration: Where Does It Begin? Teacher Librarian, 14811782, 20020601, Vol. 29, Issue 5)


It is hoped that the information on this website can be drawn upon to inform your education students of ways to collaborate with teacher librarians to improve student learning.  These include:

• What do TLs teach? 
• A program for pre-service teachers at the University of Michigan, Show, Don't Tell.
• Handouts on what TLs can do for teachers, in the Teachers section.
  
• Ideas for integrating information literacy into resource-based units of work.
• Readings on projects and research into preservice teacher education relating to teacher librarians (righthand column)
• Ideas for collaborating with teacher librarians to improve student literacy
• A YouTube video clip designed for student teachers at Southern Cross University Library on Why Teacher Librarians are VERY important.
• Words of advice to pre-service and in-service teachers (YouTube video part of Southern Cross University series)
• Integration of resource-based learning in several school libraries is described in the YouTube video Something Special About Our School Libraries (in the Southern Cross University series)

Readings

Asselin, M. (2005). Preparing preservice teachers as members of information literate communities. In J. Henri & M. Asselin (Eds.),The information literate school community 2: Issues of leadership. Wagga Wagga, NSW: Centre for Information Studies.

Asselin, Marlene, Dreher, M J. (2004). New literacies for the new information age: Conceptions, instruction, and teacher preparation. National Reading Conference Yearbook (pp. 115-129). National Reading Conference.

Asselin, M.& Doiron, R. (2003). An analysis of the inclusion of school library programs and services in the preparation of preservice teachers in Canadian universities. Behavioral and Socal Sciences Librarian, 22(1), 19-33.

Asselin, M. (2000). Poised for change: Effects of a teacher education project on preservice teachers' knowledge of the school library program and role of the teacher-librarian. School Libraries Worldwide, 6(2), 72-87.

Asselin, M. (2000). Confronting assumptions: Preservice teachers' beliefs about reading and literature. Reading Psychology, 21(1), 31-57.

See also the work of Dr. Carolyn Brodie and Mary Tipton, co-directors Institute for Library and Information Literacy Education. The Institute focuses on activities with PK-12 teachers, library media specialists, pre-service educators, and students working as collaborative peer-learner teaching teams in learning how to use school library media centers and information resources (i.e., print, electronic and web-based) more effectively to enhance student learning.