Block Scheduling and Its Impact on the School Library Media Center - (Libraries Unlimited Professional Guides in School Librarians) by Marie Shaw

About the Book

Across the country educators are facing the challenge of restructuring the secondary school to meet the needs of students in the twenty-first century. Block scheduling provides sustained time and fosters an environment for active and experiential learning, a key to student success in life. The author, who has spearheaded the adoption of block scheduling in her school's library media center, has prepared a complete guide for library media specialists contemplating or moving to block scheduling. In preparing this guide she has incorporated the experiences of twelve secondary school libraries across the country that have also moved to block scheduling. Step by step, this guide walks the library media specialist through planning, networking, curriculum and instruction, professional development, technology, and assessment. Practical suggestions, forms, lesson plans, and case studies of other media centers that have successfully adopted block scheduling will help the library media specialist to make the transition to the block.

Block scheduling places a high demand on staff, materials, and information technologies. Shaw stresses that networking of people and resources is essential to successful adoption of block scheduling. She takes the reader through the planning and transitional phases of a high school adopting block scheduling and addresses concerns about instructional change, ongoing curriculum, and the role of the library media specialist as a teacher of information technology. She provides ideas on where to find professional development and how to network with other library media specialists with expertise in the block and offers practical suggestions on resource sharing, study hall, flexible scheduling, budget, collection development, substitute teachers, and assessment techniques.

Book Synopsis

Across the country educators are facing the challenge of restructuring the secondary school to meet the needs of students in the twenty-first century. Block scheduling provides sustained time and fosters an environment for active and experiential learning, a key to student success in life. The author, who has spearheaded the adoption of block scheduling in her school's library media center, has prepared a complete guide for library media specialists contemplating or moving to block scheduling. In preparing this guide she has incorporated the experiences of twelve secondary school libraries across the country that have also moved to block scheduling. Step by step, this guide walks the library media specialist through planning, networking, curriculum and instruction, professional development, technology, and assessment. Practical suggestions, forms, lesson plans, and case studies of other media centers that have successfully adopted block scheduling will help the library media specialist to make the transition to the block.

Block scheduling places a high demand on staff, materials, and information technologies. Shaw stresses that networking of people and resources is essential to successful adoption of block scheduling. She takes the reader through the planning and transitional phases of a high school adopting block scheduling and addresses concerns about instructional change, ongoing curriculum, and the role of the library media specialist as a teacher of information technology. She provides ideas on where to find professional development and how to network with other library media specialists with expertise in the block and offers practical suggestions on resource sharing, study hall, flexible scheduling, budget, collection development, substitute teachers, and assessment techniques.

Review Quotes

"If I were stranded in a school where the faculty was considering the adoption of block scheduling or already implementing it in some fashion, this is the book I would want to take along to "that desert island.,.".Bottom line: Read it or get left behind for those facing a block-scheduling journey."-Teacher Librarian

?If I were stranded in a school where the faculty was considering the adoption of block scheduling or already implementing it in some fashion, this is the book I would want to take along to "that desert island.,.".Bottom line: Read it or get left behind for those facing a block-scheduling journey.?-Teacher Librarian

?Shaw sings the praises of block scheduling and offers workable suggestions for her colleagues facing this educational challenge.... Librarians in schools contemplating this switch will benefit from a look at this book.?-Booklist/Reference Books Bulletin

"Shaw sings the praises of block scheduling and offers workable suggestions for her colleagues facing this educational challenge.... Librarians in schools contemplating this switch will benefit from a look at this book."-Booklist/Reference Books Bulletin

About the Author

MARIE KEEN SHAW is curriculum instructional leader and a library media specialist at East Lyme High School in East Lyme, Connecticut./e She took a leadership role in her school's adoption of block scheduling and has presented a number of workshops on the topic to school library media specialists. She was a member of the Connecticut Legislative Task Force on Telecommunications for Schools in 1997, and co-authored a district technology plan, Target for Technology.