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| Students in Mrs. Howard's fifth grade class enjoying a Book Tasting in the school media center. |
Many teachers
and librarians are familiar with hosting a “book tasting” where students get to
sample different books across genres to find out what they are interested in. Mary
Lou O’Connor, a Massachusetts school librarian, has taken this same approach
with digital literacy. She constructs restaurant style menus that combine her
lessons with digital resources all aligned to the American Association of
School Librarian’s National School Library Standards and the ISTE Standards for
Students and Educators. By taking this approach, Ms. O’Connor is able to blend library
standards into lessons that are fun and engaging.
By
keeping her frame of reference for creating digital lessons that meet standards
and are still fun for children, it is easier to see how the rigorous library
standards can be translated into fun activities. The American Association of School Librarians
(AASL) standards focus on six “Shared Foundations” or competencies: inquire,
curate, include, explore, collaborate, and engage. While these standards focus
on the library as a whole, the International Society for Technology in
Education (ISTE) standards focus specifically on technology and how it can be
utilized in the school library setting. They are meant to be, and should be,
used together to create a well rounded digital and literary lesson for a school
librarian to use. This is especially true as students are continuing to grow up
in a technology-based world where they must be tech-literate just as much as
literate in reading skills.
In a
perfect school library, I envision these two sets of standards working in unison
for highly engaging lessons. It would be ideal to hit every one of the six AASL
competencies in every lesson as well as incorporating the student ISTE standards,
and that may be done sometimes. However, realistically it is next to impossible
to have a perfect library lesson due to a vast variety of reasons, most often
the amount of time a class can spend in the library instead of the classroom. In
those cases, I envision a library lesson that hits on as many competencies as
possible while also having students engaged in technology in any way possible. I
also envision librarians who take these standards out of the library and into
the classroom through a partnership with classroom teachers.
A great
resource for future or current school librarians to explore is the AASL
and ISTE Standards for Students and Educators Crosswalk. This document provides
a great breakdown of how both library and technology standards can be used in unison.
References:
A comparison of the AASL
and ISTE standards. All Things: School Libraries. Retrieved January 17,
2023, from
https://libraryandinformationscience.tech.blog/2020/01/24/a-comparison-of-the-aasl-and-iste-standards/
O’Connor. (2019). now
serving: An Appealing Menu of Digital Literacy Tools & Resources. Knowledge Quest, 47(5), 16–21.
The ISTE standards.
ISTE. (n.d.). Retrieved January 17, 2023, from
https://www.iste.org/iste-standards
Shared foundation
infographics. National School Library Standards. (2020, August 10).
Retrieved January 17, 2023, from
https://standards.aasl.org/project/foundations/
Hello Samantha, I loved that you included an example of a lesson that you have done with your students and related it to the ISTE and AASL standards! I enjoyed exploring the crosswalk for this assignment as well. It was helpful to see how correlated the two sets of standards are.
ReplyDeleteSamantha, you have made some very good points and chose an article that shows how librarians can use a different approach in getting students to feast on knowledge. I would use ‘technology tasting’ to summarize the concept. I view the menu as a choice board where some students may not want an appetizer, but want to jump right into the main course of a good resource they are interested in. Using the AASL and ISTE Standards, librarians can definitely support this experience for students and teachers. The menu of resources can be saved and used year after year.
ReplyDeleteLibraries can provide more space for students to explore, use materials at different stations, and to effectively collaborate with minimal distractions from other groups. As O’Connor (2019) mentions, “student choice empowers our students to take charge of their learning” (p. 21).
Jenkins (2019) used the term ‘book tasting/speed dating lesson’. When I read this article, I thought about how to merge the two concepts. To do this with technology, I would set up different digital mini lessons or activities – menu style – and give students a time limit to explore each activity, but yielding a product to share with others at the end. Students would present their products and be given time to tell one positive thing they like, ask a question, and give one gentle suggestion (T.A.G.), which is a really good strategy O’Connor (2019) shared. Students learn how to critique someone else’s work to be able to provide relevant feedback.
This concept is a good representation of how the AASL and ISTE Standards can be seamlessly integrated into engaging experiences for students.
References
O’Connor, M. L. (2019). Now serving an appealing menu of digital literacy tools and resources. Knowledge Quest: Journeying with the AASL Standards – Online Exclusive, 47(5), pp. 17-21.
Jenkins, M. B. (2019). Roll the die on the new AASL standards. Knowledge Quest: Journeying with the AASL Standards – Online Exclusive, 47(5), pp. E1-E3.
Hey, Samantha!
ReplyDeleteI loved reading your blog post.
After diving into these two sets of standards, I have to agree with you that every school librarian should be using these standards in their lessons that they plan. However, like you stated, it may be unrealistic to use every one of these standards in a single library lesson given the time that librarians are usually given to teach a lesson. But, I do feel that school librarians must try their best to pack as many of these standards as possible into a lesson without overwhelming themselves and their students. I know as a classroom teacher that it can be hard to cover all the standards in multiple lessons; therefore, I know it will be hard as a school librarian to cover all the standards we are expected to cover. However, I feel we must try our best in order to give the students what they need to be successful.
Again, thank you so much for your blog post.
Sincerely,
Courtland Smith
Hi Sam! I enjoyed your real-life application of this assignment. It's true that every lesson combines many of the shared foundations and standards we looked at in this week's module. When I first looked at the Crosswalk, the multi-paged, minuscule font document, I was completely overwhelmed! Thinking about how a school librarian is tasked with meeting all of those standards was shocking at first. As I read Jenna Spiering's article on how easily the standards overlapped, it helped to clear the fog. I think to my own lessons I teach my second graders. As a classroom teacher, many of my lessons are cross-curricular and cover a few standards at the same time. The AASL and ISTE standards are the same. The Crosswalk document was very helpful in showing just how easy it is to produce multiple learning outcomes.
ReplyDelete