Maximizing your Impact

Sunday, @ 10:00am


Co-teaching Information Literacy and Reading Comprehension Strategies by Judy Moreillan, Ph.D.


Judy began with an excellent analogy of the tortoise and the leopard, relating the struggle of survival to literacy instruction. She went on to deliver a clear message: Library Teachers can impact reading comprehension by collaborating with Reading Specialists. Co-Teach. She has identified 7 Reading Strategies to "help your kids read it and get it". By identifying these 7 strategies and linking them to Information Literacy, your students will become more successful readers & will increase their comprehension. The strategies do not work in isolation, but must be taught in tandem for maximum effectiveness.


Using another analogy, the elephant in the "Seven Blind Mice" story, each part of the elephant seen individually does not provide an accurate, overall image to the blind mice. As in reading for comprehension, all portions must be linked to the whole for complete understanding.


So where to start? Kindergarten! Teach reading for meaning, not just reading for words.


In her book, Judy outlines research-based instructional strategies, and offers the following statistics...for students who have mastered the following skills, there is a corresponding increase in test scores:


Identification of similarities and differences 45%


Summarizing and note taking 34%


Setting Objectives and providing feedback 23%


Questions, cues, and advanced organizers 22%


She urges Library Teachers to post student friendly objectives, develop rubrics to achieve those objectives, use essential questions to frame the lesson, and cue the learners as to what is really important.



"Teaching is too difficult to do alone...collaborate with your Teacher-Librarian"
Dewitt Wallace, Readers Digest, Library Power 1994

Co-teaching techniques include one teaching and one supporting, the increased availability for one-on-one conferencing, parallel, alternative and team teaching all provide faster and more effective brainstorming...ultimately resulting in the students becoming more engaged!
Check out her website for speakers notes and more at http://storytrail.com/
By next week, the power point presentation should be available on her website. Check it out now for others!