In addition to the usual readers’ advisory for ELA and research projects in Social Studies, there are many ways to work with teachers on research and information literacy skills across the curriculum from science and math to music and PE. Here are some experiences I’ve had working with other teachers at a variety of grade levels and subjects as well as some ideas and lessons learned.

Math

At a previous school, a math teacher was inspired by a mini-lesson in media literacy that I gave during an assembly about how the same facts could be presented with different slants. He gave his students a dataset about condo prices, and they needed to create two graphs to prove two very different points. The website Spurious Correlations can be an inspiration for this as well in terms of both describing correlation v. causation as well as representing data with two different units on y-axes (placing the unit scale differently would result in a wildly different graph). At that school, I didn’t teach his students, but this could be a basis for collaborative or at least coordinating lessons.

Another former colleague hosted Mathematician Mondays. Each student signed up for a specific Monday during which they would present their research about a specific mathematician.

As part of the Science Fair unit, I spend some of the 5th grade’s weekly library time helping them complete the research piece and build their sources/citations page. This can be challenging because most of them don't really understand what they're supposed to be researching and don’t think it’s necessary. For example, if they are doing an experiment growing beans in different conditions, they don’t understand that they need to do research on what a bean needs to actually grow (water, sun, nutrients, soil). Since each student has a different experiment, I feel like I need to give individual instruction to help brainstorm what questions they might need to research; however, there’s not enough time for that. After a couple of years, I’m still trying to figure out a good way to explain this to the whole class.

Music

Try working with the Music teacher on a composer or musician research project for the students.

PE 

At a school where I worked previously, a PE teacher worked with the library to create a research project for her students that primarily focused on different aspects of nutrition and exercise. Students used the library’s books and databases to research their topics.

I haven’t tried this, but perhaps an option for injured students could be to research the history of a sport, game, or piece of equipment.

Social Studies / History

One teacher I worked with at a previous school was teaching the U.S. Civil War but realized that he didn’t have enough time to cover everything he wanted. He, another librarian, and I worked together to create an independent reading project for the students to read a historical fiction or non-fiction book that took place in the U.S. during that time and present what they learned to the class. The other librarian and I gave book talks about many of the books and facilitated the assignment on the books based on a choice system.

During the election this year, I worked with the Social Studies teacher to lead a lesson about Media Literacy and the importance of getting information from various sources. We showed headlines from a variety of sources pertaining to Hurricane Helene and discussed the idea of left/right-leaning bias in media as well as the idea of journalism versus click-drivers.

General

When I get new books in the library’s collection that I think would be good for different topics, I will highlight them for the relevant teachers. For example, CATastrophe! A Story of Patterns by Ann Marie Stephens is a fun exploration of series and patterns that our 1st grade teacher was happy to know about, and How to Build a Human: in Seven Evolutionary Steps by Pamela S. Turner provided a supplementary text and fresh ideas for teaching about early humans to our 5th grade teacher.

I change displays in the library not only for students but also for teachers based on what they are currently doing in their curricula. When a teacher asks if we have a certain book, I mention other ideas as well (even if we have the specific book), and this can sometimes lead to a good (short) discussion about their class plans.

Lessons Learned

• I have heard about 4th graders’ (and higher grades) using random resources found through a Google search without any scaffolding about how to evaluate search results and determine the best resource to use. 

• As mentioned above in Science, the students don’t always see any research as necessary and often just use image credits to fulfill the requirement of three sources for their project.

• Sources for information and photos are often used without a requirement to cite them for research (or other) project boards and presentations. This is an opportunity to work with our curriculum planner and perhaps to present a short PD for teachers; it’s also not something every teacher wants to require.

I hope these ideas help you think of ways to work with teachers in all subject areas. Each new collaboration helps colleagues throughout the school better understand the role and value of a school librarian as a partner in delivering effective instruction to our students.