Inquire
Jill Tyner
Bethel Elementary School
Simpsonville, SC
Include: Build new knowledge by inquiring, thinking critically, identifying problems, and developing strategies for solving problems” (AASL, 2018, p. 67).
Mrs. Jill Tyner is the media specialist at Bethel Elementary School in Simpsonville, SC. I interviewed her about how she incorporates inquiry in the library program. First, she gave some background about the scheduling at Bethel. “We have a ‘mixed fixed’ schedule. I see kindergarten and first grade classes every week, and I see second through fifth every other week. Each lesson is 30 minutes.” (J. Tyner, personal communication, November 26, 2019). She further explained on Mondays and Tuesdays she has no breaks except for lunch. On Wednesdays through Fridays she has fewer classes. Due to time constraints of 30 minute lessons, she does not incorporate whole inquiry lessons in the library; however she will incorporate inquiry questioning and incorporate inquiry “tidbits” into what they are already doing in the library. Some teachers do request that she teach or co-teach inquiry lessons in the classroom. Co-teaching is definitely ideal, because the teacher knows the content and the needs of the student the best, and the librarian knows inquiry and where to find resources best.
We also discussed resources in the library used for inquiry. “Of course we have books, but we also have a small collection of eBooks. Sometimes I buy eBooks for specific projects. For example, I like to buy Lightbox interactive books from Follett” (J. Tyner, personal communication, November 26, 2019). She told about a time recently when 5th grade was doing a project on famous inventors. She bought several Lightbox interactive biography books, and the fifth graders enjoyed using these. She also buys Pebble Go, which is an encyclopedia-type database for younger elementary students. This is around $1,200 per year, but she says it is worth it because it is easy for Kindergarten through second grades to use. She also incorporates SC DISCUS into inquiry lessons. When I become a librarian, I want to build up the eBook collection, and Lightbox interactive books seem like great resources.
As for collaboration, Mrs. Tyner has a goal of collaborating on a project per grade level per year. She visits grade level meetings to collaborate with them, and she is working on getting on a rotation of visiting one grade level planning each week. She helps them in many ways, from making digital pathfinders, planning, co-teaching, or teaching a class without the teacher. She said that it really just depends on what the teachers need. She stated that it’s more effective to co-teach than just to take over teaching the class, but some teachers see that as an extra planning time. I think that based on the schedule of her library, the collaboration goal that she has is impressive. I plan to have a collaboration goal at my future school. I also like the idea of rotating to different grade level meetings, if that is possible with my schedule.
A challenge that Mrs. Tyner sees with inquiry learning is the time, both for the teachers and herself. “There are so many standards that the teachers have to cover, and we have trouble trying to fit it all in. Also, the library schedule makes it very difficult to plan inquiry lessons. The older kids in 2nd through 5th grade only see me every other week for 30 minutes, so too much time passes between lessons, and it just drags on for everyone” (J. Tyner, personal communication, November 26, 2019). I can absolutely see how it is difficult to implement whole inquiry lessons into the library schedule. 30 minutes is not much time for a whole lesson, much less an inquiry lesson. It is great that she does try to collaborate with teachers on inquiry outside of the library lessons.
Another challenge is that students have trouble with critical thinking skills. For example, if they are looking for information in a book about George Washington, and trying to find out his birthday, many get frustrated that a book may not say “birthday.” However, it may say “George Washington was born on February 22, 1732.” They have trouble with critical thinking to determine that this information is actually his birthday, even though it doesn’t use the word “birthday” in the sentence. They often give up if the word is not right there in the text. She made a good point that working on critical thinking takes a lot of practice, and it has to be implemented in the classrooms consistently as well. I really enjoyed talking to Mrs. Tyner and learning more about inquiry-based learning.
References
American Association of School Librarians, (2018). National school library standards for
learners, school librarians, and school libraries. Chicago: American Library Association
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