Presenter: Name: Tamara Ingalls

Title: Librarian
Organization/School: Rippon Middle School

Program Description
Join two experienced librarians, one former English teacher and one former science teacher, as they discuss inclusive libraries and creating space for collaborative lessons with low incidence special education classes.

Together, we explore paired fiction/nonfiction texts, videos and activities/games that support students spending more than 50% of their day in self-contained special education classes. We will share lessons that pair fiction and nonfiction texts with high interest topics along with a practical application, activity or game for these students. We offer text suggestions, activities, videos and more! Many of these pairings can be adapted for other subjects and grade levels. Participants will leave the session with specific lessons and activities that can be used when they return to their schools.

Additionally, we discuss how structure and routine created a safe and inviting library space for our exceptional student population. Collaboration with the special education teachers led us to implement visuals and positive behavior reinforcement. Lastly, we explore the effectiveness of explicitly taught behaviors using common language amongst educators, and teaching assistants and how to support those behaviors with modeling and positive reinforcement.

Learning Objectives
• Librarians will leave with resources to support their instruction for students with disabilities.
• Librarians will acquire knowledge and tools to discuss collaboration with educators in self-contained special education classes.
• Librarians will leave with hands-on activities designed to increase special education students’ hand-eye coordination, and dexterity.

Additionally, participants will leave with strategies that foster positive student interactions, communication, and good sportsmanship.

Program Outline
We will preview at least 10 collaborative lessons/activities for middle school that we have created and facilitated in a fairly standard conference format with a slide deck presentation.

Possible topics include:
Donuts
Cows
Sumo Wrestling
Cats
Tacos
Squirrels
Candy Sushi


We will make curricular connections clear, including cross-curricular applications we’d like to pursue in the future.

The presentation slide deck will be shared in advance of the presentation. Within the presentation, there will be links to books, videos, hands-on activity instructions (when possible). There will be a link to a folder with all of our plans and will include updates to lessons when necessary.
Inclusive Library Spaces: How to create one space for all

Grade Level: 6-8

Session Strand: Teaching & Learning

Presenter
Tamara Ingalls

Tamara Ingalls is a librarian in a middle school in Prince William County, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, DC. The school has close to 1300 students in grades 6-8.
Tamara has been a school librarian for 11 years and in education for 18 years. Prior to becoming a librarian, she was a science teacher.

She is a lover of books, science, cats, naps, games, and soft blankets.

Debra Gish

Debra is a librarian in a middle school in Prince William County, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, DC. The school has close to 1300 students in grades 6-8.
Prior to becoming a librarian, Debra Gish was a language arts teacher for 12 years and has taught all middle school grade levels. She has been a librarian for 10 years and in education for 22 years.


Description: Inclusive libraries should be a growing part of our schools. We collaborated with special education teachers to create interactive lessons, videos and activities focusing on paired texts. Pairing fiction and nonfiction is an effective way to expand students’ knowledge and allow for high engagement with the content. This approach created space and opportunity for students to self-select topics of interest and derive joy from learning. We invite attendees to join our session and learn more about how to create more engagement with special education classrooms in your libraries.