At the start of this year, I wanted to really focus on my library lessons and design them to be more strategic in what I wanted to achieve. As a teacher librarian, there is so much content to cover: curriculum unit related items, reading promotion and dedicated reading time, library skills, information literacy and research skills, digital and AI literacy, as well as celebrating special events like Book Week and author visits. It can be overwhelming and crowded. Now that I have every Year 7 and 8 English class, as well as a number of Year 9 and 10 classes, booked in for regular fortnightly library lessons (a massive win), I wanted to ensure my lesson plans for the year covered everything I wanted to.
A focus on reading
This year, I really wanted to have a focus on reading for my year 7 and 8 students. At this age, they are far more likely to still be engaging with reading and I wanted to capture and support that. This meant I wanted to include dedicated reading time in each session, focus on book promotion through book talks, quizzes and activities, and plan some extra activities like picture book studies.
Time for celebration
This year I also wanted to make sure I scheduled within library lessons to celebrate Book Week and author visits. In previous years, the busiest time for subject unit related work was at the same time as book week. Thanks to a change in units, this is no longer the case, and so I allocated the end of term 2 and all of term 3 to book week and author visit work. I’m excited to see the impact it has.
Routines
Setting routines was something I really wanted to focus on this year, since I finally had all classes attending library regularly. These routines included how to enter and exit the space, leaving laptops shut until invited students to open them and a routine to our lessons, which included more dedicated time for our browsing, reading and borrowing at the end of each lesson.
BRB
This year I introduced BRB time to my students. Same thing as we’ve always done, time for browsing, reading, and borrowing in the last 20 minutes of each lesson? Yes, absolutely. New catchy name and a promise to protect this time each week? Yes. And the students love it. They are quick to remind me when I’ve gone too far into their BRB time and I see the enjoyment on their faces when I tell them we are ready for BRB time. In this time I model and explicitly tell them what I want to see. Students browsing the shelves, picking up books, reading the backs of them, checking out the new books on display, recommending books to peers. Students sitting reading quietly or in a pair. Yes, I’m okay with pair reading and reading to each other. At this point, I just want students to love this time. The silent, individual reading will come later. And students heading to the desk to borrow as many books as they need.
The planning process
I start my planning by mapping the English units for the year. As my library lessons are within English times, and I support other subjects with other flexible sessions, I want to make sure I support the English curriculum in library lessons. I do this by outlining the timing and focus of each English unit and seeing where my assistance can be offered, either with unit or class novel introductions, digital literacy skills like multimedia video creation skills for assignment pieces, or topic and collection introductions. From there, I map out how many sessions I need to spend on these and where there is cross over with information literacy and library skills. I outline what skills I’d like to introduce to each year level and when we need to cover these. I then work to integrate these, making them relevant and within context. Next up is blocking in Book Week and my author visit celebrations. For these, I wanted to focus on the shortlist and allow time for shadow judging and exploration of the categories. This led nicely into our author visit, a notables listed author. I would explore the book and introduce the author and complete some creative activities relevant to their current English unit and the visiting author. Finally, where I had gaps and areas where I knew what I wanted to cover but needed some inspiration to make it a fun lesson, I started looking for inspiration.
Mapping it out
I’m a writer, so this part, the planning and inspiration, all happens with pencil and notebook. I prefer a large blank A3 visual diary. That gives me lots of freedom to map out what I need. It’s pretty basic at this point, just the when and overview, basic ideas. After that, I move to digital, creating my unit overviews and lesson plans.
Always changing it up
Of course, my sessions are flexible and the benefit of good planning means I can deviate. I’m constantly reflecting and working with the teachers to ensure I am meeting what they need support with in class and adjusting to what each class needs. It ensures my classes remain flexible and still focused.
How do you plan your library lessons? What do you prioritise?