Integrating the Shared Foundation of Explore in the school library 

Interview Date 11/5/21: Explore

For an insight into how local high school libraries are integrating the AASL Standard of Explore, I interviewed local high school Media Specialist, Rebecca Brunson.  Brunson encourages students to read widely in multiple formats across multiple genres, from various  resources, and information from multiple publications. She instructs students during lessons as well as on an individual basis on where to locate and explore materials within the library and via online databases as well as how to access multiple formats such as books, eBooks, and audiobooks through the school’s online catalog system, Destiny Discover. These resources are available to enhance student interest and exploration of topics. 

 Throughout the year Brunson teaches lessons on research techniques promoting ethical guidelines and strategies to select a topic of personal interest and or to align with curriculum.  For these lessons she references Common Sense Media and often presents a menu of options for teachers to select from so that when she steps into a classroom she is prepared to teach on the topic students struggle with most. She also promotes safe and ethical usage of images and teaches students where to locate royalty free images such as those found on Pixabay and Photos for class. Copyright is always a hot topic within her research lessons.  

Currently, Brunson’s biggest project on promoting reading and encouraging students to explore novels and authors is her genrefication project.  She has been the lead on this effort within her own library as well as the leader in the district.  Brunson has presented at local library meetings about the genrefication process and its benefits to increasing circulation.  She would like genrefication to offer a fun and simple way to navigate the fiction section, hoping students will explore the genre they love and read more often.  

Some of the challenges that she is currently facing is that those at the district level do not like the concept of genrefication.  As of now, all her novels have color coding on the spine labels and have sublocations in Destiny (her online catalogue system) to identify a specific genre. She is struggling with getting approval to move novels in physical genre locations approved. The hope is that with more schools in the district getting on board with genrefication, the district will approve a trial run.  If circulation numbers increase indicating a success with this change, the hope is that genrefication will remain.   

In the future, Brunson also hopes that the school will support engagement of more personal learning time in the school day. School schedules are so tight that it does not allow time for students to spend time in the library to explore for personal growth.  She hopes to see this change with an adjustment of schedules allowing for flex time where students have designated free learning time to investigate career options, trades, personal hobbies, and basic life skills such as cooking and banking using library resources.

Implementing AASL Foundation of Curate

Interview Date 11/8/21: Focus Curate

To explore AASL Shared Foundation Curate, I interviewed  Caitlin Cregan, Media Specialist at Andrew Jackson High School over Google Meet. Some examples of the ways in which she is using curate through her role as a librarian is how she creates collections in Destiny Discover for student use. Cregan enjoys seeking out resources for students and finds that creating themed collections of resources for students saves them time in the research process. Collections mostly include books but also contain articles, drive items, SC Discus links, and videos.  Most recently added topics expand across a  variety of subjects including  genres, sports, culinary, olympics, and athletes.  She also creates collections that align with specific topics being taught in a classroom such as scientific elements and civil rights. 

Cregan collaborates with teachers as far as talking with them about what is being taught in class and how she can support instruction with supplemental materials. She is open to curating collections of resources based upon content topics and student interests. Cregan prefers to collaborate with teachers ahead of time, find out what their needs are, and then curate digital collections of resources for student use. Often she will go into classrooms and share with students how to access collections within Destiny and the resources she has provided to align with particular classes/course content.  If she is not able to be in the classroom, she will push out her information via her website, Destiny, and ConnectEd. 

Beyond classroom assistance Cregan creates collections within Destiny to assist students with test prep for SAT testing. Some of the challenges she faces with students is that they do not have an interest in her collections.  She works with students and teachers to educate them on how she has curated items ahead of time for their projects to save them time and energy in searching sources as she has already located and vetted them.  Cregan also takes her collections created in Destiny and creates private documents with links and source information as a backup.  

                        

Collaborating in the School Library 

 Interview Date 11/8/21: Focus Collaborate 

For insight into how a local middle school librarian was incorporating AASL Shared Foundation, Collaborate, I interviewed Media Specialist Leigh Jordan form A.R. Rucker Middle School.  When asked about some examples of the ways in which she was implementing competencies of collaboration within her library program, Ms. Jordan shared with me how she is currently working with teachers and students. This past week she has been working with the leadership class on a canned food drive for local residents.  She has collaborated with the teacher on an assignment incorporating technology. Students are put together in groups to work on a promotional video to encourage students to donate non-perishable items for those in need this holiday season. These videos are featured on the school news show which the media center produces. Jordan has students select how they would like to design their PSA.  Each option involves hand drawn work.  Students may use puppets they have drawn or sewn together or they may use images they have drawn on 8 ½ x11 paper.  Outcomes are paper slide shows like an old time cartoon or a theatrical puppet show.  Both incorporate audio recordings. Students select format, create scripts, collaborate with one another, design images, act, and film.  Students have found the project to be fun as they work together when one holds a puppet, one holds cue cards, and one films live. They  practice hard together as their assignment is live, no retakes!

Some of the resources Jordan uses to implement or assist with collaboration of this project were Google as it allows sharing so students could share pictures and go over and edit their scripts. Students could also look through her collection of everyone picture books to get ideas on how to use simple pictures and minimal words to get their points across as well as to reference drawing ideas. Students used her bulletin board paper to cover boxes and decorate them to hold collected cans that were dropped off in the media center.

While this project demonstrates collaboration with students and a teacher, Jordan engages in such activity with multiple teachers throughout the year.  She generally meets with teachers, reviews project rubrics and sees where she can fill a need. She ensures that students know what is expected of them.  At the conclusion of assignments she notes what went well and what might be good to do differently next time. 

Jordan has worked as a librarian for over 20 years and has developed amazing relationships with her peers and yet sometimes she can still hit some challenges when trying to incorporate collaboration. She mentioned that it is always challenging as she has to take time to explain to teachers the benefits of working together.  She often stops and checks in with teachers regarding expectations. Jordan did provide some great tips on collaboration.  The first is to create relationships with teachers as these often lead to collaboration. Second is to remember projects that work and offer them to other teachers.  Be specific as to how your lesson or project contributed to a unit or student understanding.  In addition Jordan talked of the importance of carrying on good programs/projects even as teachers leave.  Just because Mrs. Smith left it doesn't mean you can’t keep that awesome lesson plan or project going.  Meet the new guys and keep it running. Be a salesman for your advocacy and for the benefit of student learning.

How do school librarians incorporate the AASL Standard of Inquire?                                                                                                                

  Interview Date 11/4/21: Focus Inquire 

Today I met with Media Specialist Mike Leroy to discuss how he incorporates the AASL Shared Foundation of Inquire with his high school students. Leroy enjoys finding ways to help his students think outside of the box and ways to encourage his students to inquire about new topics in new ways.  Currently he is collaborating with a spanish teacher on class presentations that align with school librarian domain and competencies 1.B.3 “Facilitating the development of products that illustrate learning” and  1.C.2. “ Providing opportunities for learners to share learning products and reflect on the learning process with others” (AASL, 2018). 

Leroy is assisting the teacher with instructing students on how to use various tech apps such as Headliner to create and edit videos that show students speaking Spanish while educating viewers how to prepare a traditional Mexican or Spanish dish. He has noticed that many teachers are not comfortable with today’s hottest technology so he steps in to help with this aspect of projects. He also supports this teacher's assessment of language development with a hands -on activity.  Within this lesson, students would produce their own individual recording demonstrating use of technology and understanding of language. They would then be placed in groups where they would evaluate each other's work and provide feedback. At this point students would make revisions to their own assignment as well as select one recording from the group to be presented to the class. Their top pick would then progress to a group project where they would work together to re-record, edit, refine, and present. Leroy brought up a plan on how each student could share in the editing responsibilities so they would all gain additional experience. This project provides an opportunity for students to reflect on what they learned on their own projects and then take that knowledge and apply it to the final group project that would be shared/presented with classmates in the media center. 

While Leroy is happy with opportunities to work with students on the presentation end of assignments, he looks forward to working with classes more on the front end of projects such as research work. He would like to help them grow more with their research skills and has contacted teachers about bringing classes into the media center for lessons on the research process.  He wants to instill good habits with students , getting them away from Googling everything and more towards using library resources from SC Discus with the ability to identify sources and use the T.R.A.P. method. He has worked on pulling specific materials requested by teachers for class assignments and has made himself available when teachers call on him for assistance. 

Leroy uses many resources in his library to help implement inquiry learning competencies such as creating Destiny collections for students and he attends department meetings to talk with teachers about what they are doing in class and how he can supplement their lessons. The media center itself offers space for presentations, group study areas, and tools such as IPads and white boards. He has also collaborated this semester with teachers on the following activities, booktalks to generate interest in the latest titles, conducting children's lit lessons with teacher cadets, SC discus and databases usage lessons with ELA 4 , Science collaboration teaching compounds and elements using stop motion and Google draw. 

When asked about current challenges his media center faces when trying to implement AASL standards and competencies, Leroy responded that it is often hard to get teachers to start off a unit with the media specialist in mind.  They often come to him after they have begun with a project. He also encounters difficulties due to the size of the school. With the amount of students, multiple classes go on simultaneously such as a specific science class making it difficult to reach each group. He has also noticed that many high school kids have apathy towards reading and he is making it a goal to regain excitement with his students. Currently he is undergoing a genrefication effort with his library in the hopes it will create excitement and encourage students to read. He and his staff are looking to create a book store atmosphere to make locating an interesting read fun and easy.  

References

American Association of School Librarians. (2108). National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries. Chicago, Ala Editions, An Imprint Of The American Library Association, 2018.