By Teresa Hoffman Sartor, Dragana Martinovic, Atinuke Adeyemi, Irene Hartley & Sharon Seslija
GECDSB and University of Windsor Collaborative Inquiry Project: Coronation Public School
Abstract
As part of a district and university supported collaborative inquiry project, a teacher-librarian and classroom teachers in a K-8 public school document how they “examined the impact of various ways of eliciting collaboration between the teacher-librarian and classroom teacher and how that impacts the attitudes and willingness of classroom teachers to collaborate with the teacher librarian.” With principal support including common planning time for teachers to plan with the teacher -librarian, and district and university study support, the research project was implemented to determine how “an inviting, accessible learning commons space” and “opportunities provided for collaboration” impact student information literacy skills. Teachers who planned with the teacher-librarian expressed interest to continue the following year and felt that both they and their students had benefitted positively from the experience.
Teresa Hoffman Sartor is a Vice Principal with the Greater Essex District School Board in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Through her twenty-five years in education, both as a teacher and an administrator, her commitment for students to engage in learning through the library learning commons has been her passion. Taking her philosophy from the movie Field of Dreams, Teresa has worked to encourage her teachers to use the school LLC with their students, believing “if you build it, they will come.” Currently she is enthusiastically enticing her students into reading great fiction through the OLA’s Forest of Reading Program, and using literature circles to turn them into critical readers and thinkers. When not promoting libraries, she spends time creating memories with her husband, four beautiful children and her dog Elmo.