Collaboration unfolds differently in different situations, yet more often than not, we make assumptions about the effects of collaboration in all settings and for all purposes. I recently read the following document entitled: Collaborative Overreach: Why collaboration probably isn’t key to the next phase of school reform by James Croft: http://www.cmre.org.uk/sites/default/files/Collaborative%20overreach.pdf According to this article, […]

I think it behooves us to ask ourselves whether collaborative assessment practices including moderation, is different now that we are headed into 2016 - versus what it looked like in 2006? The process of grading and assessing students is very subjective, and it always has been - but with so much information, technology, globalization, opportunities […]

Why do we assess our students literacy skills? There are several key reasons that we need to be involved with formally assessing our student’s literacy: First, we can gain key diagnostic information about the current skills that our students have. We also can glean key information about the previous knowledge and experiences of our students […]

Planning time is important for teachers. Teachers require time each day where they can have some personal autonomy to grade, organize, plan, build, create, and meet with others. Teacher-Librarians, as leaders in the school, who have a pulse on everything that is going on within a school, and a plethora of resources, can give very […]

Research on multicultural groups including Black, Hispanic, First Nation, and ESL suggests that standards based reforms, large scale assessments, implementation of standards based reforms are unfair (Volante, 2008). We run into problems when the big data is always used to prove what works in education, for instance, why we need Librarians, more standardized texts for […]

I find that supporting struggling readers in Intermediate is very difficult. It is difficult to support with a classroom library or school library collection, difficult to run guided reading, and difficult to preserve self-esteem because using websites and books that may be at appropriate reading levels are also often for ‘little kids’. It is important to […]

  We spend so much time talking about the technology, and all of the great new apps, programs, tips and tricks. Undoubtedly it is a literacy unto itself. But do we really teach our kids how to ‘read’ the internet? How do we harness literacy skills as they specifically relate to the technologies available to […]

When working with our young readers, the way we design our instruction and assessment has a significant impact on the development of proficiency.

  I have the opportunity to be part of an amazing inquiry in SCDSB that is looking at the learning environment as the ‘Third Teacher’.  We are looking at how well-designed innovative spaces can be harnessed to help students optimize their learning potential. I am particularly interested in how library and classroom design enhances literacy […]

  The following checklist is based on the new Ministry of Education Monograph: The Third Teacher Please feel free to print and use for your own reference. Created by Deborah McCallum Deborah McCallum http://twitter.com/bigideasinedu