Inquire

 Alana Lewis is currently the library media specialist at Sangaree Middle School.

Implementation 

Ms. Lewis has been working on activating learner prior and background knowledge. Before starting novels, she works with the teacher to make sure her students have an understanding of the events and timelines in the book. Before reading Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson, the students completed relevant research on the Black Panther Party and other topics from the books. This helped them have a greater understanding of the events and topics within the novel. Mrs. Lewis makes sure there are products that illustrate learning. Often times after elementary school the products become essays and Ms. Lewis tries to let the students do those more artistic products. I think another option to add to the library would be individual choice research projects such as a genius hour. Because Ms. Lewis engages her students so well, I hope to accomplish similar inquiry goals.

Resources 

Alana Lewis uses Mackin to hold her online resources. She uses a combination of physical books, databases, and websites. Ms. Lewis does a great job working with teachers to help support what they need. She has great ideas and the students love coming into the library on these planned classroom visits. I hope to be able to implement some of these same changes as a future librarian.

Collaboration

Ms. Lewis attends the PLC meetings with the grade-level English teachers. She knows that research in a vacuum is not as effective and she works with the teachers to ensure the research the students conduct within the library is relevant and will be used. She makes sure what she's doing in the library will support the students.  Lewis works really hard to make sure she is supporting content and teachers' needs. I hope that I will be able to do the same thing. I just interviewed at an elementary school with a fixed schedule. I do not think I would be able to attend every PLC each week, but even attending every other or every 3rd week, I would be able to help support the content in the same way. 

Challenges

One of Ms. Lewis's greatest challenges has been getting other subject areas involved. She wants students to be able to realize that inquiry can happen in all subject areas and it is not isolated to just English class. It is often cross-curricular. I think inquiry naturally happens in science classes. I would love to work with all subject areas. Students getting that integrated learning really helps them make connections. I think inquiry lessons can be challenging because while most students love to research and find out about these topics, some students still try to get away with the minimum which doesn't lend itself to great products. 

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