Watching the aha moment… seeing the light bulb turn on… those are the moments educators savor.  And helping students navigate the waters of research is one of the things I love about being a teacher librarian.  I love circulating among the students, questioning, guiding, and steering them toward information.  Providing information does not create Information Literate students; providing them opportunities to manipulate information, however, does build Information Literacy.

Inserting ourselves into the student projects is what school library media specialists do.  Francis Jacobsen Harris, Uni High Media Specialist in Champaign/Urbana did a wonderful job contrasting the roles and expectations of public librarians and school librarians in a 2003 article for Reference & User Services Quarterly.*  Frances describes how she volunteered to help when her son’s class went to the public library to do research.  Harris says “while I floated from group to group, inserting myself into conversations and checking on progress, the reference librarians stayed at their desks and waited for students to approach them with questions.”

“Inserting myself” – That IS role of the school librarian during research projects!

It was interesting to note, also, that Harris thought the students welcomed her help and responded better to her while they remained timid with the reference librarian.  I don’t doubt it.  Kids don’t say what they want or need because they often do not know!  The art of being a teacher librarian is to ask a lot of leading questions and allow the students to discover answers for themselves.  But sometimes what you discover is that the student does not have enough background information to discover their answer without your direct intervention.  This was the case last week.

Eighth grade history classes have been in the library researching colonial topics.  The history teacher is a master at creating excellent group research projects – she’s the best I’ve ever seen.  She and I both circulate among the students.  Even when no one seems to need my help, I check in with each group and remind them that they can approach me for help at any time.  One young man finally told me he needed a book on religion.

The questioning began:

Me:  “Why do you need a book on religion?”

Student:  “I need to find out about religion in our colony.”

Me:  “You are less likely to find information about a specific colony in a religion book.  You are much more likely to find the information on religion in the book you have on the colony.  I’m sure it includes a discussion of religion.”

Student:  “No, it doesn’t.  I’ve been reading it.”

Me:  “What is your colony?”

Student:  “Pennsylvania”

What I wanted to say but DID NOT -  “Pennsylvania?  Pennsylvania?  Is there a more religion based colony than Pennsylvania?  How can you NOT have found that information?  Did you really read anything?”

But you do NOT say these things.  Ever.  And the longer you work with students, the more you reject this initial response in yourself.  This is where the teacher librarian must remember that all students are fragile.  If you ever want them to approach you for assistance again, you must tread carefully.

What I say is, “Let’s look at it together.”

We open the book together.  The first sentence says that “William Penn, a Quaker from….”

Me:  “Read the first sentence to me.”

He reads.  “What is that word,” I say, pointing to Quaker.

Student:  “I don’t know.”

Me:  “Quaker is a religion.”  (It is important to say this in just the right tone – not mocking nor with any hint of superiority.  This answer has to be about information sharing only.)

“Oh-h-h-h,” says my student.  It talks about Quaker all through the book.”  Light bulb.  Aha!

But my student is a little embarrassed.  I have to make him feel safe.

“There you go,” I say, like we discovered it together.

With young readers, what they don’t know hurts them!

This student was lacking critical background information and it hindered his information seeking.  He didn’t know the word Quaker and that impacted everything.  But that is why I am there…  and why I love my job!

* Harris, Frances Jacobson, Lori Arp, and Beth S. Woodard. “Information Literacy in School Libraries.” Reference & User Services Quarterly 42.3(2003): 215.