Dear Elementary
Teachers,
It is no secret that you have an incredible responsibility that
entails not only conveying book knowledge of all content areas to your young charges
but also nurturing their curiosity, a love of learning and, perhaps most importantly,
a growth mindset!
Maintaining a growth mindset is important at every stage of life.
We all have holes in our knowledge and gaps in our abilities. We all have skills we dream of learning “one
day.” One day I will learn to kite surf!
Well, perhaps I will, but I digress. What we must teach and model for our
students is the attituded that it is not important to know all the answers or possess
all the skills all the time. When they encounter a hole in their knowledge or a
gap in their ability, we must teach them to say that they just do not know the
answer or have not mastered the skill YET.
To
support classroom teachers, school librarians can work with students and
encourage a growth mindset by teaching them information seeking strategies that
promote independent learning. As an added benefit, this “collaboration [between
classroom teacher and librarian] allows opportunities for school librarians to
incorporate information literacy skills and technology into curricular content
in classrooms” (Wine, 2016, p. 213).
Teaching students how to use technology to independently
uncover answers to their questions empowers and prepares them to become
lifelong learners as they learn to say, “Hold on, I don’t know YET.”
References
Gerstein, J. (2020, May
26). How to help your students develop a growth mindset. teachthought. https://www.teachthought.com/learning/how-to-respond-when-students-say-i-cant-do-this/
teachthought: We Grow Teachers (2021). teachthought.
https://wegrowteachers.com/about/
Wine, L. D. (2016). School librarians as
technology leaders: An evolution in practice. Journal of Education for Library
and Information Science, 57(2), 207-220. doi:10.12783/issn.2328-2967/57/2/12
I really like the thoughtfulness of this approach. I have seen the Three Before Me suggested before, but mainly as a classroom management strategy rather than as a way to build independence and problem solving. I like that there is a rationale behind this and that it includes a technology element. I think you would still have to create procedures and expectations around what browsing should look like, but I like that this looks like an approach to student-centered learning rather than as a message not to "bother the teacher."
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ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your blog this week. It is true, many teachers use this approach with their students to encourage them to reach out to others as well as other potential steps before coming to the teacher. What a great idea to implement this concept into technology in the classroom. This is a fantastic strategy to further grow students in their abilities to use research and technology. Students will develop and grow in their independence as they use these steps before going to the teacher. The blog and resource that you shared are visually appealing. Thank you for sharing this resource.
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