Reworking the schedule, etc.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Here are my thoughts on reworking the timetable. I'm guided by two basic ideas: First, the primary/ junior kids really only need the library as a regular source of interesting, good quality reading material. They need to get into the "library habit." On the other hand, middle school kids need the library as a place to tackle project-based learning where they have a chance to interact with ideas, solve problems, discuss things under the guidance of a tutor or facilitator. And of course, they need good literature as well.

So, guided by the above, here are my recommendations:

1.) Having each primary and junior class cycle through the library 3 times over 10 days is excessive. Once a week for a 30 minute book exchange would be sufficient. Perhaps the primary teachers could receive their release time in another way...

2.) The fact that I have a grade 5 class scheduled six times over 10 days is also less than ideal. Consider the fact that during those 5 periods no other students can use the library, because it is full and I am basically unavailable to supervise a second group during that time. The grade 5's program is fragmented, and time is also lost during travel time and settling time. This particular group of grade 5s needs resourcing in small groups and I believe my time would be better suited to working in some sort of literacy support role, rather than being locked into all of that prep coverage for their teacher.

3.) The same argument could be made for the extra library periods that were given to class 73, 62 and 82, totalling 4 periods. This resultant patchwork of library time is not equitable, and really doesn't open up the library to any other kids. As it stands now, the resource centre (which has received hundreds of new books waiting to be shelved) is NOT actually available to any middle school classes outside of those few hole-plugging ones.

4.) What is needed is a fairly open timetable that allows for partial class groups to be sent with specific tasks that I can support, facilitate and teach. Research shows the benefits of this type of work. For example, the media component of a language arts classes can be met by working with specific groups on various projects on a pull-out basis that might, say, last for a couple of weeks for each group. In this manner, a class of 30 students could work in four groups over a term. Other tasks could be handled by splitting the class into two larger groups of 10 to 15 at a time. Thinking this way, the library schedule would be derived by purposefully pairing up the library with each language class on an equitable basis.