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2018-19 West Hills High School Library Highlights
1. Continuing and Building Upon Previous Best Practices
1. Continuing and Building Upon Previous Best Practices
While we are always looking for ways to improve the school library program, we also maintain features that continue to be valuable.
View previous library highlights:
Some of the elements carried forward this year include the following:
- Collaboration, including with teachers and San Diego County Library
- Literacy instruction and advocacy, including the Readers & Writers Club, publication of the Inkwell Student Literary-Art Magazine (see 2018-19 edition), and Star Reader Awards (this year to Jacob Henderson and Andrea Leong)
- Technology integration and support, community use (including Star Service Awards this year to John Bui, Annabelle Caballero, and Christina Jones), and ongoing program development and alignment
2. Defining a District-Wide Vision for FutureForward Libraries: Open Doors for Students
2. Defining a District-Wide Vision for FutureForward Libraries: Open Doors for Students
This year, West Hills teacher librarian Suzanne Sannwald collaborated with GUHSD Library Council members to define a common vision for the library program district-wide. Aligning with the FutureForward goal of "preparing students for their tomorrow," GUHSD libraries aim to open doors for students today by:
This district-level vision complements the driving theme of our West Hills Library program: connection.
In our library, we strive to open doors for students and #WeConnectHere. What other doors may we open? How else may we connect? Share your ideas!
3. Refining Research and Information Literacy Instruction Through Classroom Collaboration
3. Refining Research and Information Literacy Instruction Through Classroom Collaboration
Spring 2018, Ms. Sannwald worked with other GUHSD teacher librarians to create district-wide Information Literacy standards for the GUHSD Technology Requirement.
Aligned with current best practices regarding information literacy instruction, Ms. Sannwald is grateful for classroom teachers who have collaborated this year in order to help students develop and apply research skills within the context of coursework.
Below is a sampling of some noteworthy collaborations from this year:
- Using Library Databases for General Research with Worth. including framing with the Internet iceberg model
- Researching a Controversial Social Justice Issue With Boehme & Catlett, including concepts of Information Search Process and breadcrumb trails
- Deep Diving Research with Liddell, including adding "context terms" to search keywords and using "stepping stone" resources such as Wikipedia and Google Talk to Books
- City Research with Ramey, including use of Britannica and ProQuest databases newly available this year thanks to the California State Library
- WAAC Information Evaluation with Worth, providing concrete "lateral reading" strategies at Website, Author, Article, and Claim levels
- World History Final Project Research with Reid, including a deeper focus on lateral reading at the website level for information evaluation
4. Expanding Academic Collaboration with Individualized Instruction Program
4. Expanding Academic Collaboration with Individualized Instruction Program
For several years, the library has provided space for the Best Buddies Club to meet and students have volunteered weekly in the library to practice job skills. Expanding this year, Tropiano and Knopp started new collaborations with their reading classes.
Tropiano's student visited the library biweekly to check out books to read, write, and talk about.
Students told us about their interests so that we could purchase and curate special collections for them.
We then created thematic book bins for easy browsing based on student interests and refreshed them regularly.
Students wrote and talked about the books they read.
Knopp's students persevered through the design thinking process with Maker Hub resources.
Making use of the OtterCares Foundation grant secured by Principal Robin Ballarin during the 2017-18 school year, Knopp's students explored WHHS Maker Hub resources through activities including:
Students experimented with robotics.
Students created 3D models online.
5. Increasing College and Career Support, Including AVID Program Collaboration
5. Increasing College and Career Support, Including AVID Program Collaboration
AVID teacher Ashley Worth collaborated to add some college spirit to our space. She also introduced AVID students to college-level research skills, including APA format with an athlete research project. Below, see bonus trading cards students created!
AVID students helped create and hang decorations for the new college and career corner of the library.
With the artistic help of substitute teacher Alex Carson, we created a map of colleges WHHS staff attended.
Library aides Christina and Annabelle created an interactive digital display for students to share post-secondary plans.
Athlete Trading Card Gallery
Looking forward to the 2019-20 school year, keep an eye out for GUHSD's expanded access to LearningExpress's Job & Career Accelerator, which will augment students' current access to LearningExpress's PrepSTEP for High Schools. These and other online database subscriptions available to student are regularly reviewed and recommended for district-wide subscription by teacher librarians.
6. Showcasing Student Work
6. Showcasing Student Work
Supporting GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums), we love to showcase student artwork.
We created a sculpture garden with new stabiles from Goodman's students.
Goodman also shared students' wire sculptures in-the-round.
Students contributed original art to be featured on special edition bookmarks.
Students submitted literary and art creations for Inkwell.
Student aides helped create a number of displays throughout the year, including these below.
7. Inspiring Literacy Within and Beyond the Curriculum
7. Inspiring Literacy Within and Beyond the Curriculum
The library supports literacy within and beyond the curriculum. Below is a sampling of efforts from this year!
This year, Ms. Sannwald tackled a massive reorganization project in order to better organize the evolving print collection in light of digital resources.
With most classroom research taking place online, we focus on adding and offering print books that students will choose to read on their own.
For instance, students have continued to enjoy exploring the works of new poets, a trend backed up more widely by recent data regarding reading habits.
This year, staff and students also joined in recommending books that they are currently reading or that they have enjoyed in the past.
Several teachers experimented with independent reading projects, including thematic-based lit circles with Ruggles and Romanowski's sophomore students.
The Readers and Writers Club continued with strong membership and in collaboration with the San Diego County Library Santee Branch.
For the first time (thanks to Mount Miguel teacher librarian Amie Wilson), a group of WHHS students got to attend the YALLWEST Book Festival.
Just as we try to connect students with literacy resources throughout the school year, we head into summer with recommendations to keep reading!
8. Fostering a Culture of Community
8. Fostering a Culture of Community
The library has books available for checkout and creates, curates, and supports digital resources for learning. However, the library is also a physical place where all students are welcome and where we support the building of community. Below are a few ways we engaged with students this past year.
With help from student aides Annabelle and Christina, we continued to feature monthly calendars customized for the West Hills community.
Supporting Start with Hello week, students used our Maker Hub button press to create hundreds of buttons to share on campus.
One of the most popular interactive displays has been this height chart. It's been a fun conversation starter to see how tall students are.
Inspired by Cambou's competition, students helped host a fundraiser and then used funds to donate AP Gov study guides to the library for checkout.
With help from our student aides, we hosted virtual bonfires for Reyes's AP World History conversations.
Supporting campus participation in Great Kindness Week, student aides helped create Truth or Dare "Kindness Edition" table tents to foster conversation.
Inspired by compassionate making, we offered passive makerspace programming such as these make-your-own #WHHScares fortune tellers to spark conversations in a fun way for Start With Hello Week.
9. Connecting within Professional Communities
9. Connecting within Professional Communities
Ms. Sannwald engages within professional communities to keep learning ways to improve the WHHS library program. She also enjoys sharing her experiences and knowledge gained at West Hills with others.
In line with new literacies, Ms. Sannwald joined a Comic Con Educators book club hosted in conjunction with the San Diego County Office of Education.
Along with teachers Mrs. Morrison and Mrs. Jokerst, Ms. Sannwald joined four West Hills students in representing our school at the GUHSD Student Summit.
10. Reflecting and Moving Forward
10. Reflecting and Moving Forward
This is a notable year since we are graduating the first class of students benefiting from FutureForward all four years of their high school career. In the WHHS library, we reflect on the progress we've made over these years while seeking to continually improve.
9/3/15 - The library set up for distributing our first set of FutureForward 1:1 Chromebooks to the Class of 2019 who were freshmen at the time. These students would never know high school without technology access.
5/23/19 - Soon-to-be-graduating seniors from the Class of 2019 recently visited the library to buy their Chromebooks. They are the first class of students to have FutureForward technology access all four years.
Just as student learning has been transformed by FutureForward, GUHSD libraries have transformed, as well. This spring, Library Council shared about some of the changes and our vision for the future.(Photo credit: Dan McDowell)
The work continues...
In Spring 2018, Ms. Sannwald was accepted as a member of the American Association of School Librarians first Induction Program cohort. For the past year, she has actively participated in this leadership program and will be attending the AASL national conference in November.
This year, Ms. Sannwald joined the WHHS Literacy Committee to build upon past work to develop plans to further support literacy instruction and learning based on UDL principles. Increasing collaboration with other teachers is an ongoing library goal.
One of Ms. Sannwald's passions is observing how students interact with information. This spring, she wrote an article for School Library Connection on this topic and will be publishing another this summer. Our information landscape is changing - we must, too!
Connect with us! #whhspack #WeConnectHere
Connect with us! #whhspack #WeConnectHere
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Social icons from Nikita Landin (Creative Commons 3.0 )
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