Welcome to the fourth episode of our specialist and supporting teachers series.  

Last night, I was talking with my friend Denise Kraft, the PYP Coordinator at the Lawrence School in Middletown Public Schools.  We were chatting about her recent experiences hosting the second Igniting Inquiry Conference with Trevor MacKenzie, Jessica Vance, and Amy Chang.  It all began, because she demonstrated her agency by asking Kath Murdoch to come to her school for a PD session.  It quickly ballooned into a conference that included Kath and Misty Paterson.  I was fortunate to be part of the staff at the inaugural event. 

Quickly, our conversation pivoted towards how to leverage next year’s conference to provide more  access to specialist and supporting teachers.  This topic circled back to the impact of learner agency and how to support everyone’s needs.  In the last episode, we only presented ideas for an EAL teacher using the thinkchat lesson cycle.  In this episode, I want to continue to provide more examples of how agency can occur in the library. 

I chose the role of the librarian, because you are usually forgotten in the specialist/supporting teacher rotation cycle.  Sometimes you are part of the rotation and other times you are left to your own devices.  Here are some ideas to get you kick started.  For the rest of you, I hope the examples help you to adapt it to your specialist and supporting role.  Don’t worry, your turn is coming!

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​Before we move forward, I want to clarify that these ideas are my personal opinion and not necessarily of the IB.  You need to confirm everything with your IB consultant and/or IB world school manager.  The ideas I am about to share are based on my experiences and observations.  Now let’s get to it!

​This is a question I’ve recently begun asking at the beginning of my workshops.  I think intentionality is huge with agency. Are we trying to create choice boards?  OR are we trying to teach learners to make their own choices to become more independent?  If our intention is to create more independence, we may need choice boards to scaffold the process in the beginning, but it’s not where we reside for long. 

I’ve been reading “Think Again” by Adam Grant and this passage really resonated with me.  “A bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing.  In too many domains of our lives, we never gain enough expertise to question our opinions or discover what we don’t know.  We have just enough information to feel self-assured about making pronouncements and passing judgment, failing to realize that we’ve climbed to Mount Stupid without making it over to the other side.” 
This recently happened to me.  I thought there was a certain process within curating an IB workshop.  Someone brought it to my attention that I misunderstood and it was a quick fix.  Sometimes, this happens and in times like these, we have to ask ourselves, “What was the bigger lesson that I needed to learn here?”

So how does this apply to agency?  Many of us might have a partial understanding of what agency looks and feels like in practice.  When I am in doubt, I always return to the source, PYP: From Principles into Practice.  This time, we are zooming into the Agency section.  PYP: From principles into practice/The learner/Agency.

The IB refers to the work of Bandura and how social cognitive theory supports the learner.  “Conceptualised by Bandura in social cognitive theory, agency “enable(s) people to play a part in their self-development, adaptation, and self-renewal with changing times” (Bandura, 2001).

PYP students with agency use their own initiative and will, and take responsibility and ownership of their learning. They direct their learning with a strong sense of identity and self-belief, and in conjunction with others, thereby building a sense of community and awareness of the opinions, values and needs of others. 

As I read both quotes, these are the physical and personal things that are happening to show that agency is happening in a classroom.  Before we categorize them, we need to make one thing clear.  Teachers DO NOT GIVE AGENCY to their learners.  We were all born with agency.  Instead, we CREATE THE CONDITIONS for agency to thrive in our classrooms.  What does this mean?  We create learning experiences that are so compelling that learners want to engage with their own ideas and inquiries.  As the specialist and supporting teacher, you are allowing moments of freedom for them to demonstrate voice, choice, and ownership in their work.  In some cases, your classes are the only place where the opportunity exists, so let’s make it happen. 
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Now, let’s go back to the Principles into Practice quotes.  I have categorized them into three groups: self, community, and both. Let’s take a peek. 

​As an educator, I can see the benefits of allowing agency to happen more in my practice, but what are the potential costs?
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• Time
• Control
• Direct-teaching

These elements are going to be sacrificed, because the focus shifts from the TEACHING to the LEARNING. This is why we began talking about our use of time and our relationship with time.  When we begin to design with the learner in mind, we use our time wiser by giving up some of the control by decreasing our direct teaching time. 

We are going to apply all of this back to our practice by using the thinkchat lesson cycle with the table we just explored.  I’m going to use the table as a self-assessment tool to see if I planned with the lens of developing self and community.  Let’s have some fun with it. 

Library Application
Below, we will explore a way that we can make the library experience come to life while exploring the approaches to learning (ATL).  I chose the ATL, because they are skills that we teach that bring about learner independence.  Also, our role as a teacher librarian has expanded to a media specialist, which supports research skills. 

This task can be used and modified for the entire school.  For early years, it would require situational prompt cards to get them discussing ideas.  You don’t have to create different lessons for each grade level, if they are founded on skills, inquiry, and conceptual understanding. If you don’t know what these are, don’t worry.  You will by the time we are done with this series. 

The focus of the lesson:  ATL Research Skill/Formulating and Planning/ Ask or design relevant questions of interest that can be researched.

Pose a question:  In small groups, all learners discuss this question:  What are the different jobs of a question? 

Warm-up activity:  Provide some laminated question cards that are factual, conceptual, and debatable in nature, but they have not been previously taught to learners.  In small groups, ask them to sort them by what they think is their job.  There should be a clear idea of how they are different.  Have groups perform a gallery walk to see the similarities and differences between the groupings. 

New information:  As a whole group, reflect on the process of sorting the questions and discuss the challenges, ahas, and new ideas during the gallery walk.  Share with learners that there are three types of questions that can be explored based on the work of H. Lynn Erickson.  All of them are necessary in our research. 

• Factual question:  these are closed questions that will provide short and quick answers about a particular topic.  What is force and motion?  

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• Conceptual question: these are open-ended questions that can be explored in many ways.  They take some time to answer and are made up of concepts.  How does force and motion impact my everyday life? 

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• Debatable question:  these are open-ended questions that are really deep and can really blow the mind.  They take time and space to answer, so often they are fewer in number.  Why might forces bring about change? 

If you are still scratching your head, there are more examples of these types of questions in my Plan for Inquiry on my website. 

Play with ideas:  In small groups, have learners use the Weiderhold Question Matrix, also in Plan for Inquiry, as a prompt for learners to create their own factual, conceptual, and debatable questions.  Have them play with these different question types and peer assess if they are being used correctly. 

Reflection:  Learners share in a whole group/small group/partner setting to discuss how learning about these different types of questions expanded their understanding of their purpose.  

• How has exploring the different types of questions changed how you use them in your own writing and research? 
• What more do you need to learn? 

The conditions for agency to happen can come in numerous forms.  I just wanted to share an example of the same tool with a specialist and supporting teacher role.  Here are some others that are often used in classrooms.
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• Choice boards
• Choice of materials
• Choice of products
• Choice of process

Noticing a trend?  Choice is huge in agency and it’s an easy starting point for specialist and supporting teachers.  

When you want to dig a bit deeper, consider downloading my guide, Using Agency Daily on my website.  This might help you to look at a variety of ways you can bring about more agency in your daily practice.  

Next time, we are going to explore my old friend named inquiry.  She is really magical and not too complicated. See you next time!

I love when a friend tells me that they have someone I need to meet.  Usually, I find that I have a new friend in the world.  As the stars would have it, Janat Blackmon and I met when I visited her campus CC Mason to deliver an IB workshop.  Through the experience, I quickly realized her depth of understanding of the PYP programme and her love for the school.  

During the workshop experience, I found the staff was very dedicated to the programme and were eager to apply practices back to their classrooms.  These are the types of schools that make your work so worthwhile.  

Here are my impressions of CC Mason.  
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