Supporting You is Supporting the Standards!

Enszer, Greta

 

CO

 

Keeling, M., & Mardis, M., (2017). Supporting You, Supporting the Standards: AASL’s Implementation Plan. Knowledge Quest, 46(2), 80-85.

Summary:

What support do teachers need in implementing American Association of School Librarians’ Standards?  To personalize stakeholders, they created graphic personas with captions such as “Tony is a teacher. He’s competent and well respected for his strong instructional practice. He’s not sure what collaborating with his librarian will add to his practice.”  Introductory material in the plan explains the task force’s vision, the guiding principles behind their work, the cast of characters for whom they planned, and the adult learning theory that guided their choices.  The current plan identifies 115 action steps, including the development of branding, learning resources, partnerships, and outreach. The action steps are organized in a spreadsheet format to allow a future standing committee to revise and adjust the plan as conditions in the educational landscape change in the years ahead.

 

Evaluation:

“Successful implementation requires that all school librarians commit to: • continual professional reflection and growth; • adopting and applying the national standards; • iterative, aspirational planning to lead and serve the learning community; • advocating for all students; and • advocating for the school library.”  In addition to school librarians, this should read school administrators—as Dr. Ross Todd states in his article The Power of (in) the (Im)Possible, “A commonly stated impossibility centers on getting ‘administrators to really understand what we do so that they would see the instructional value of our programs and not just a place to find a book or schedule an event (closing us down)—some get it, but some really don’t.'”  Librarians are highly skilled and motivated individuals—when funded and supported, they make a difference in students’ lives, but the burden cannot be on their shoulders alone without the support and collaboration of the entire school.  Ruth Brown was an advocate—unfortunately history reports she was fired because of it!

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Essa and School Libraries

Monaghan, Josephine

CA

ESSA and School Libraries. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://essa.aasl.org/aasl-position-statements/

Summary

In this website, the AASL unpacks the various provisions in ESSA relating to the school library as well as their official position statements. This includes defining what an effective  school library looks like as well as the instructional role of the school librarian. The website also links to state specific ESSA plans and on which page(s) library specifics are presented. ESSA updates and resources can be found on the resource and discussion board pages. 

Evaluation

I did not know a lot about how ESSA is impacting school libraries. I found this website very useful in understanding how the school library community is interpreting the language of ESSA, and defining what an effective school looks like. These position statements and definitions have become the foundation of the school library description in various states’ ESSA plans as well as reference for school library advocacy. 

SAMR and TPACK with examples from Social Studies

Post by Rachel Hatcher-Day

Topic: SAMR, TPACK, ET

Hilton, J. T. (2016). A case study of the application of SAMR and TPACK for reflection on technology integration into two social studies classrooms. The Social Studies, 107(2), 68-73. doi:10.1080/00377996.2015.1124376

Summary

This study defines the SAMR and TPACK models and gives two examples of their application in social studies classrooms. SAMR comes across as student-centered planning, reflection, and thinking. TPACK is a teacher-centered analysis and evaluates how pedagogy, technology, and content filter through the teacher.

How to Design a Library that Makes Kids Want to Read

Post by Kim Chaney

Topic: Library Design, ID

Bierut, M. (2017). How to design a library that makes kids want to read. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/michael_bierut_how_to_design_a_library_that_makes_kids_want_to_read

Summary

In this TED talk, Michael Bierut discusses how he had an unintended consequence in his library design project that caught on and beautifully infiltrated the New York City schools. As a graphic designer he was tasked with developing a logo for The School Library Initiative. This was a project spearheaded by the Robin Hood foundation, a philanthropic organization geared to enrich the lives to lower income students. In the process of failing to succeed on his logo project, he opened the door to complete library redesigns that brought in the local culture of the community. After one successful redesign, the idea spread throughout the New York City school system. The TED talk discusses his process and highlights some of the library transformations he was a part of.

Summary

I found this to be a highly inspiring TED talk (as most of them are), especially for a new school librarian who has the opportunity take over a library that is in need of an update. Through his own experience and humor, Bierut brings to light ways that a librarian can update his/her library space in very simple ways. While his redesign ideas were more involved, using local artists and photographers, the images provide ideas that can easily be done in a public school

Implementing & Evaluating Instructional Partnerships

Kim Stuart

Berg, K., Kramer, J., & Werle, M. (2019). Implementing & Evaluating Instructional Partnerships. Knowledge Quest, 47(3), 32–38. Retrieved from https://knowledgequest.aasl.org/

Collaboration

“Can you find these books for me?” evolved into, “I have this idea. What can we do to explore—and possibly—explode it?”

In response to the revision of North Dakota’s school library standards, the new AASL standards, and the popularity of project-based learning, Bismarck Public Schools developed training for school librarians with partner classroom teachers on collaboration. The foundation for the workshop came from Judi Moreillon’s research on coteaching, which lead to the creation of a rubric that measured the level of collaboration in which teachers and school librarians engage.

A teacher-librarian and teacher duo then shared their experiences in collaboration after the workshop, and reported that it was greatly enhanced. They shared examples of their activities, including the creation of maker-type spaces that supported project-based learning and Genius Hours.

I highly recommend this article for the rubric alone, which is a fantastic tool to measure where teacher-librarians might be in their collaborative journey.