LIBS 6991

Sherri Lehde
In-Service Initiative Reflection

The in-service initiative portion of my internship was daunting to me. I have had a great
deal of experience teaching students, but teaching adults is another matter entirely. Above all
other considerations, I wanted to be sure that the topic would be meaningful. The very last thing I
wanted to occur was for the teachers to be sitting there listening to me and wondering what
possible use this topic was going to be to them and how much longer I was going to continue. I
wanted the presentation to have true value to them as professionals. As I began to discuss what
my topic might be with my internship supervisor, Ms. Tina Lake, she indicated that there was
something she had often felt was lacking in school libraries in general. That missing piece was a
deliberate effort to make sure that a schools information center and all the resources contained
therein are fully accessible to the special needs students of the school.
As I began to conduct a literature review on the topic, I found very little literature to
examine. I did find one article that highlighted the importance of offering engaging and
appropriate literature for middle and high school special needs students to encourage them to
become lifelong learners (Lee, 2011). Of course, in a space filled with printed materials aimed at
high school students, ensuring that students who are often reading several levels below grade
level is daunting for the school librarian. Lee commiserated with this sentiment when she said
The challenge for the school librarian is to develop programs that will appeal to these
students. These programs need to foster student engagement with reading by using books
that address their current interests, drawing upon popular adolescent culture. The texts
selected also need to be accessible, mapping onto their reading level while providing
content suited to their age level. Additionally, if one of the goals of the program is to

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Sherri Lehde

improve students reading skills then large quantities of highly engaging books are
needed. This is a tall bill to fit (2011, p. 1).
Of course, accessibility is a key factor in library science, and this does not just include
physical accessibility. Intellectual accessibility is also important as identified by the American
Library Association (ALA), which states, all students have equitable access to library facilities,
resources, and instructional programs (ALA Council, 1986). In order for a school library to
fulfill its purpose, it must ensure that all students, regardless of emotional or intellectual
disability have access to library resources to the fullest extent possible.
In preparing my in-service presentation, it was first necessary for me to become
acquainted with the special needs population of Aviano Middle and High School and their needs.
I coordinated with Ms. Lake and the special education teachers to view records of all the students
who had been identified as special needs. I was granted access to their records and examined
them with a goal of getting a feel for their areas of struggle and the gaps where the Information
Center (IC) was not fully meeting their needs or making the collection accessible to them. I
found that nearly two-thirds (65%) of them struggle with reading and/or language skills. For this
reason, I knew that I needed to focus on helping the special needs population of the school find
the IC a friendly place where they could find resources that they want to read and also where
they can easily find research information they need. I wanted to equip them with the tools they
need to access that information in spite of their difficulties with the written language. I believed
that the first step in this process would be equipping the special education teachers who work
most closely with these students so that they would feel fully enabled and comfortable finding
resources and using the tools and aids available in the IC.

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Sherri Lehde

My second step was to become intimately acquainted myself with what aids were
available in the library to help special needs students. I spent several hours doing nothing except
browsing the catalog and investigating all the offerings in the light of how easy or difficult it
would be for special needs students to navigate and access the resources found therein. I tried to
put myself in the position of a struggling reader to see what would interest me and what would
frustrate me. I identified several key areas of potential frustration for special needs students. The
first was that there is really no way for them to know if a particular book is at their reading level.
The catalog does provide reading levels for some of the books, but it is rather tedious to search
through the catalog looking at individual catalog records to find a book with a specific reading
level. To address this problem, I talked to Ms. Lake about adding a Hi-Lo reading list that
students and/or teachers could access. She indicated that she already had one in place, but upon
examining it, it did not contain many titles. I decided to consult outside sources for lists of
middle and high school Hi-Lo reading lists. I printed several and compared them to our
collection. I identified many that we hold in our library and created a spreadsheet with those
titles as well as relevant searching information. Ms. Lake plans to add this to her library website
so that it will be accessible to anyone who wants to use it. I am still in the process of finding
book trailers for as many of these titles as possible and creating hyperlinks for them so that
students or teachers can go straight from the Hi-Lo reading list to a book trailer to see what each
book is about.
A second main area of frustration I identified and that Ms. Lake had specifically asked
me to address was the difficulty of using the databases. The DoDEA school district provides an
impressive array of databases for students to use, but they are organized so poorly that it is
overwhelming, to say the least, to try to know which database one might want to use to research

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a given topic. I decided that the best course of action would be to distill the databases down to a
highlighted list that offered the best searchability and other features that would be helpful to
special needs students. Some of these features include a text-to-speech translator, varied reading
levels, translation of articles from English into other languages, and double-click dictionary
access within the articles. I identified five databases that cover a spectrum of curricular areas as
well as general information sources and included those in my presentation.
I spent several hours preparing my presentation slides and making sure that all the links
were functioning. I prepared appropriate examples ahead of time to use in the exercises that I
knew would exemplify what I was trying to communicate. I created several handouts for the
teachers to take with them to have as a reference for future use and included all of those in
individual folders. Here is a link to a video of my in-service presentation
(https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3wmMdcv1PUmQkltYmNlVzltNGM/view?usp=sharing).
I believe my in-service made a positive impact at the school. The special education
teachers who were present commented multiple times that it was very helpful and equipped them
with some very powerful tools to help their students. I asked them each to fill out a brief
feedback/evaluation form. Participants were asked to state the degree to which they agreed with
each statement on a scale from 1 to 5 with 1 indicating strongly disagree and 5 indicating
strongly agree. Results were as follows:
I learned new things about searching the IC catalog.

4.75

I learned new things about accessing e-books and audiobooks.

4.25

I learned new things about accessing databases.

4.75

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I feel better equipped to use the SLIC OPAC to help my special needs students find
information resources.

4.75

Additionally, I asked the special education teachers to provide insight on ways the Information
Center could better equip, encourage, and aid special needs students. I received multiple
comments and suggestions including giving to the students the same presentation I had just given
to the teachers. Teachers also indicated that just being available and willing to help special needs
students find books and other information is invaluable. My internship supervisor, Ms. Lake, was
present for the presentation and asked that she be allowed to share the presentation with the rest
of the teaching staff at an in-service at a later date. She also indicated that she would like to make
the presentation available online for others to access.
Overall, I believe my in-service initiative was a success, and I am pleased with the
quality of the product that I delivered. I believe that I provided useful tools that will enable the
special education teachers at Aviano Middle and High School to better help their special needs
students. I also believe that I helped further the reputation of the information center there as one
that truly wants to make all information resources available to all students in keeping with the
mission of school libraries as prescribed by the ALA.

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Sherri Lehde

ALA/AASL Standards for Initial Preparation of School Librarians

Met in Completing this In-Service Initiative
Standard 1: Teaching for Learning
Standard 2: Literacy and Reading
Standard 3: Information and
Knowledge
Standard 4: Advocacy and
Leadership
Standard 5: Program Management
and Administration

1.1 Knowledge of learners and learning

1.3 Instructional partner
1.4 Integration of twenty-first century skills and learning sta
2.2 Reading promotion
2.4 Literacy strategies
3.1 Efficient and ethical information-seeking behavior
3.2 Access to information
3.3 Information technology
3.4 Research and knowledge creation
4.3 Leadership

5.2 Professional Ethics

5.4 Strategic Planning and Assessment

ISTE Standards for Coaches

Met in Completing this In-Service Initiative
Standard 1: Visionary Leadership

Standard 2: Teaching, learning, and

assessments

Standard 3: Digital age learning

environments

Standard 4: Professional
development and

1.a Contribute to the development, communication, and imp

shared vision for the comprehensive use of technology to su
education for all students.
2.a Coach teachers in and model design and implementation
enhanced learning experiences addressing content standards
technology standards
2.b Coach teachers in and model design and implementation
enhanced learning experiences using a variety of research-ba
centered instructional strategies and assessment tools to addr
needs and interests of all students
2.e Coach teachers in and model design and implementation
enhanced learning experiences using differentiation, includin
process, product, and learning environment based upon stude
learning styles, interests, and personal goals
3.b Maintain and manage a variety of digital tools and resour
student use in technology-rich learning environments
3.d Select, evaluate, and facilitate the use of adaptive and ass
to support student learning
3.f Collaborate with teachers and administrators to select and
tools and resources that enhance teaching and learning and a
the school technology infrastructure
4.a Conduct needs assessments to inform the content and del
related professional learning programs that result in a positiv

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program evaluation

Sherri Lehde

Standard 5: Digital citizenship

Standard 6: Content knowledge and

professional growth

learning
4.b Design, develop, and implement technology-rich profess
programs that model principles of adult learning and promot
practices in teaching, learning, and assessment
4.c Evaluate results of professional learning programs to dete
effectiveness on deepening teacher content knowledge, impr
pedagogical skills and/or increasing student learning
5.a Model and promote strategies for achieving equitable acc
and resources and technology-related best practices for all st
6.a Engage in continual learning to deepen content and peda
in technology integration and current and emerging technolo
effectively implement the StandardsS and StandardsT
6.b Engage in continuous learning to deepen professional kn
dispositions in organizational change and leadership, project
adult learning to improve professional practice
6.c Regularly evaluate and reflect on their professional pract
to improve and strengthen their ability to effectively model a
technology-enhanced learning experiences

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Sherri Lehde
References

American Library Association Council (1986). Access to resources and services in the school
library media program: An interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights. Retrieved on
October 21, 2015 from
http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/accessresources

Lee, E. A. (2011). Focusing the library on the reader: Special education students. International
Association of School Librarianship: Selected Papers from the Annual Conference, 18. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com.jproxy.lib.ecu.edu/docview/1221249410?accountid=10639