Librarians LEARN

There are SO many opinions on standards and how they fit into the library program. Every district and every school has different requirements for their librarians. The varying schedules from totally fixed to totally flexible and everything in between makes it nearly impossible for there to be a set standard to hold every librarian accountable.

That being said -- the AASL Standards do a pretty stand up job at providing guidelines for library programs. It seems that even in the schools where the librarians barely know the standards exist, the standards are being met. Competencies are incorporated because the standards are simply best practices. It is what a good librarian is already doing in their program, with what they have available to them. It certainly does provide a basis for expanding the library program and potentially getting more resources since that seems to be a limiting factor for most schools.

As a new librarian, I like the idea of having standards to build my program around. It gives me roots.
As a former classroom teacher, I love the idea of not being tied to the standards. It gives me wings.

I will do both - nestle my roots down deep and spread my wings.

Learners ENGAGE

Patricia Hynes teaches library for Pre-K through 5th grade at Gables Elementary School and has recently rewritten the library curriculum for her district to align with the most current AASL standards. The competencies of the Engage Shared Foundation are implemented mostly with grades 3-5, not with the younger grades due mostly to content and time constraints.

The focus of the Engage foundation is ethical use of information, so this approach makes total sense. She starts out with the 3rd grade as they begin to learn how to do research. They talk about using Google images and citing sources using the National Geographic website. In 4th grade, they move up to adding a citation to every slide for the information contained on that slide. By 5th grade, the students are writing full bibliographies. This scaffolding of the complex idea of ethics and legality of digital ownership is likely very successful. Some challenges Patricia runs into with implementing these competencies is finding resources the students have access to for free. Credible sources at no cost can be hard to come by.

Patricia made a point about the standards that hadn't been discussed yet in my conversations with other librarians; while the standards might be best practices for library professionals and something we look at and say "yes of course we are doing that," administrators aren't easily able to do that. The language of the standards are difficult to understand for someone who is not a library science professional which makes it a challenge for administration to see that you really are meeting the standards in what you are teaching.

Learners EXPLORE

The AASL Shared Foundation of Explore focuses on student centered exploration of personal interest and personal growth. Amanda Johnson from Meadow View Elementary School (Pre-K - 5th) shared with me her take on the Explore Foundation.

When asked for examples of implementing these competencies in her library program, Amanda said that every single time there is an opportunity for personal choice -- she allows her students to take it. She wants her students to find things they are interested in and their projects to be based on those things. For example, for the 2nd graders' research projects on nocturnal animals, the students were allowed to research the animal of their choice.

Amanda's library has access to a lot of technology; their school is 1-1 with iPads and there are various robots, building toys, Makey Makey tools and other Makerspace resources so students are constantly given opportunities for self-directed pursuits.

Implementing this Shared Foundation through collaboration with teachers is a bit harder for Amanda since she is on a fixed schedules. The students have designated library times and that is typically when the teacher has their planning period -- this makes it hard to collaborate in the classroom with teachers. Amanda does have access to lesson plans that are posted for the next week so she is able to view what the teachers have planned and then plan her library lessons accordingly to complement the content curriculum.

A major take-away from my conversation with Amanda - the standards are based on best practices so they generally are things you are already doing. Using planbook.com for her lesson plans makes it easy to put the standards with the lesson plans as you create them (it's literally drag and drop).  The standards aren't something she is required to include in her lesson plans right now but it is in the back of her mind as she plans.

Learners COLLABORATE

Deb Fowler is the librarian of 19 years at Powdersville Elementary School, serving grades 3-5. She and I took a close look at the AASL Standards, Shared Foundation of Collaborate and how it is implemented in her library program.

This standard foundation can get a little confusing since we use the word collaborate to refer to librarians working with teachers as well as students working with students. Deb promotes collaboration of students through her library program quite often -- the 5th grade gifted/talented class is working in groups on a Black Plague research assignment and 4th graders are working on extreme weather research projects in small groups. The library program has been a part of that group work both directly and indirectly. Students have been allowed to visit the library in small groups and work independently and classes have also visited the library for direct instruction or group work.

The school is 1-1 with iPads so there are a lot of apps that encourage collaboration between students and teachers as well as between groups of students or students in groups. Deb says that one thing that has been important for her library program is keeping the media collection up to date; as students work in groups, they make decisions about what they need and the library needs to be able to provide that.

The main challenges Deb finds at her school is meeting the needs of everyone while she is only one person with no assistant. She has a flexible schedule which is great for allowing her to be flexible to collaborate with teachers and be what they need, when and where they need it. But it becomes difficult to manage entire classes visiting the library, students working in small groups, and individual students coming in for book check out all at the same time.

One main take-away from my conversation with Deb is that the standards are best practices. She doesn't look to the standards to determine what she needs to be doing. She does what the students, teachers and school need and in the meantime, competencies in the standards are met because they are just simply best practices in education.

Learners INQUIRE

As we delve into the American Association of School Librarian's (AASL) standards, the biggest issue that librarians have is how do the standards fit into a real life library - what does it actually look like when the standards are incorporated into a program?

I spoke with four librarians to get an insider's perspective on incorporating the AASL standards into their library program, each focusing on one of the Shared Foundations in the Framework for Learners.

Jennifer Chesney is the school librarian at Powdersville High School, serving students grades 9-12. She and I discussed how the Inquire competencies fit into her library program.

Jennifer implements these competencies extensively in her library program and it is due mostly to the extensive collaboration she does with the high school ELA teachers. At this level, there are a lot of research projects; anytime possible, she allows students to choose their own research topic. Jennifer also runs lit circles in the ELA classes and she gives the students choice for which books they want to read from her pre-selected list of top circulating titles.

Some challenges to providing authentic experiences, a core piece of the Inquire foundation, include issues with resources, difficulties with collaborating with teachers, and challenges sharing with the public. Since the school does not have a lot of extra funding for databases like ERIC, students are not able to do research using databases like they would in college. They are limited to using Google and the Discus databases, a slightly less authentic research experience. Jennifer says that she stresses the research skills like using appropriate keywords and narrowing searches with filters.

There also is a challenge when it comes to collaborating with teachers. A lot of teachers, she says, are not really looking to work with you but instead are looking for you to teach for them. This kind of defeats the purpose of collaborating to integrate library into the content areas.

Jennifer said that one difficulty with this particular foundation is sharing with an authentic audience. There aren't a lot of opportunities to share with the public so students will sometimes share with each other; feedback isn't incorporated much into these presentations. She has shared on social media some of the work her students have completed but she did say that presents a challenge with comments from the public and appropriateness for posting on social media.

Jennifer had some great advice on keeping a library program that meets the needs of teachers and still teaches the standards. Here are some main take-aways from our conversation:

• collaborate, collaborate, collaborate!
• do the best you can with the resources you have
• let the teacher's content curriculum drive the content of your program