“By identifying the specific design problems in our space and how they impact student learning, we are much more likely to secure that funding that we need.” (Rendina, 2016)
Since I am not physically in a library or even a school, I wanted my design plan to best respond to my current role in French Language Coordination. Since I technically support K-12 French Immersion and Core French programs, it could be easy to get overwhelmed and not know where to start. I ended up sending two surveys, one to teachers, admin and some students at various middle schools, and one to K-12 dual track TLs. It was very interesting to compare the data. While much of my data focuses on middle school, I hope to widen the scope of my design to K-12 libraries eventually.
The first two problem-reframe sets reflect the graph below regarding French print resources. See Figure 1 below.
PROBLEM 1: The first problem I have identified is that there are not enough books that meet both the interest and the reading level of our FRIMM students. From the various responses from different groups, I can see that we need to purchase more books of every genre, from magazines and graphic novels to non-fiction curriculum-linked books. We also need more literature circle book options at different levels to engage all students.
REFRAME 1: A lack of diversity of French books of all genres at differentiated reading levels impacts French Immersion students’ ability to learn to enjoy reading in French and learn from reading in French.
PROBLEM 2: While some teachers and TLs are very knowledgeable of and comfortable with their French book collection, others acknowledge that they are not familiar with all the titles, do not know what to recommend their students, and don’t have time or language to read the vast array of French books in order to support students.
REFRAME 2: Lack of familiarity with and knowledge of the variety of French texts by some teachers and TLs creates a challenge for these teachers and TLs to promote, discuss, read aloud and recommend texts to students.
Figure 1
The third and fourth problem/reframe sets regroup issues related to digital literacy and ADST in French. See Figure 2 below.
PROBLEM 3: There are not enough digital literacy resources and research tools in French
REFRAME 3: Challenges in navigating and finding digital literacy resources hinder students’ ability to access digital books, research tools and other digital literacy sites.
PROBLEM 4: It is hard to do ADST in French when there are no planning templates or lessons in French.
REFRAME 4: A lack of availability of lesson resources and language supports for ADST projects in French make it challenging for French Immersion students to benefit from this curriculum.
Figure 2
While there is much more work to be done in further curating digital literacy resources in French, we are on our way and partly the need is to help teachers become more familiar with resources available to them. I will continue to focus pro-d and communication on this in my role.
I see the first three problems as interrelated and will therefore endeavor to combine them in my design challenge. In some cases the books or digital resources are there but further support for teachers is needed to identify appropriate texts or sites and become more familiar with the collection. In other cases, there is a need to add more diversity to the French print and digital library collection.
As for ADST, I would like to respond to this need by designing language supports, lesson templates and hopefully some collaborative planning and teaching to help support ADST in French Immersion.
Design challenge statement:
| Challenge |
| Co-develop, curate and promote a diverse collection of differentiated print and digital literacy resources in French that help foster a culture of reading in French, help support all students to access print and digital texts in French at their level, and help students access curriculum in French. Collaborate with teachers and TLs in building collection and in becoming more knowledgeable of what resources can work for what learning contexts and needs. |
| Materials |
| Co-created lists of print resources for magazines, novels, BDs, non-fictionDifferentiated literature circle setsSets of “coups de coeur” (favourite books) Digital library in FrenchDigital library platform to house digital book talks, student critiques, etc. |
| Teams |
Working with teachers, groups of students in a library, TLs depending on what aspect of project |
| Roles |
| TLs and teachers- help co-create or add to pre-developed lists of resources for differentiated fiction, curriculum-connected non-fiction print resourcesTLs – help further develop digital library in French, especially “ressources by subject” area. |
References
Rendina, D. (2016). How to Identify and Reframe Design Problems in Your Library Space. Knowledge Quest. Retrieved from https://knowledgequest.aasl.org/identify-reframe-design-problems-library-space/
Technology in the language learning classroom and library 