AASL Standards in Practice

  Elementary school, for many students, is their first experience in a structured learning environment. For the school librarian at this level, much effort is put into the Shared Foundation of Inquire as the beginning blocks of learning. Inquire promotes curiosity, helping students ask questions and become problem solvers. Elementary aged students are introduced to materials and resources available for personal interest and for research. With the youngest students (K-2 nd grade), Mrs. Laura Smith, the School Librarian at Alston-Bailey Elementary School, intentionally incorporates the activation of prior knowledge into her lessons, allowing students to feel connected to and generate additional opportunities for learning. Older students continue their path of inquiry through lessons on Discus and the school digital catalog. Providing lessons that allow students to be curious promotes inquiry and critical thinking. Makerspaces are another tool that promotes inquiry. At Alston-Bailey ...

  The AASL domain Collaborate focuses on working with others toward a common goal. Collaboration occurs with teachers and between students within the library setting. Ms. Causey, the School Librarian at Alston Middle School, shares that collaboration with teachers used to be more prevalent but within the past couple of years, there have been many staffing changes that impact collaboration. This year, Alston Middle School has 25 new staff with 8 as international teachers. Due to this amount of change, she has noticed a decline in collaboration. Though there are many possible reasons for this decline, there is a concern that “adding” collaboration to the teachers’ plates will further overwhelm already overwhelmed teachers. I believe we should acknowledge our teachers’ concerns but we also should not allow those concerns to limit our services. Working in partnership with teachers should not create more work but instead, can help lessen the teachers’ load. My conversation with Ms. Caus...

   School librarians have opportunities to Curate when working with students and with teachers. Ms. Anna Musselman shared examples of how the library collects, organizes, and shares material based on teacher and student needs, mostly using technology. As librarians, we identify and share resources for our students to use in their studies and for teachers to use in their instruction. Technology seems to be the most efficient way to share curated material as students are 1:1 with Chromebooks and platforms such as Destiny Collections allow for curated lists to be easily accessed outside of the library setting. Through collaboration with teachers prior to lesson delivery, the librarian can put together a digital pathfinder for students to use in their research. This method ensures that students are using credible resources and helps with time management in and out of the classroom. Technology allows for collaboration to occur in a timely manner and allows for increased student acc...

  The Shared Foundation of Engage was discussed in a conversation with Dr. Amy Savage, School Librarian at Stratford High School. Engage focuses on the safe, legal, and ethical use of information and products. At the high school level, this shared foundation seems to fit easily with a focus on research, the use of MLA formatting, and citations. However, my discussion with Dr. Savage highlights the changes that seem to have occurred within classrooms since COVID. According to Dr. Savage, teachers require MLA formatting and citations less, instead focusing on PowerPoints and website URLs for attribution. This change in expectation is concerning as for successful articulation to post-secondary settings, we know that students need to be prepared for the level of writing and research required. Dr. Savage also discussed the observation that less teachers are checking out class sets of books, instead preferring to post books online. This practice brings up the concern of copyright. As a l...