AASL Standards Framework: Interview #4

Note: The following interview of Mrs. Glenn, the Riverside Middle School media specialist, regarding the AASL standards framework, occurred on  November 3, 2021.

Include: AASL School Library Framework Shared Foundation

The main way in which Mrs. Glenn is implementing the include competency in her library program is through books. She hopes the diversity of her accurate and updated high quality collection encourages all of the school's students to visit library and check out books on topics they’re interested in reading recreationally. Another way the include competency is being implemented in her library is through the school's makerspace activities which provide access to resources and technology to all students who visit the library.

The way Mrs. Glenn is implementing the include competency involves collaboration with students and teachers on a variety of subjects in all of the grade levels. She has collaborated with teachers to teach research and a variety of subjects in the library. Right now she's helping the ELA classes find biographies and informational texts when they visit the library.  

The challenges Mrs. Glenn faces when trying to implement the include competency is providing access to the entire school equitably. For example, besides scheduled library class visits, to prevent too many students in the library at one time, students are only able to visit the library if they have a teacher pass; not all students understand this process and/or are willing to ask for a pass.

The additional comments she would like to share regarding the include competency is the difficulty of operating on a fixed schedule when she worked in the elementary school library which prevented all students from visiting the library when they would like. Without admininstration really championing a flexible schedule in the elementary school, it doesn’t happen.

Collaborate: AASL School Library Framework Shared Foundation

One way in which Mrs. Glenn is implementing the collaborate competency in the library program is by asking for feedback on library policies and procedures at the beginning of the year from her administration (ex: library passes). Additionally, Mrs. Glenn serves on school committees (SIC and school leadership); these committees are a good place to get information about the school community and promote the library.

Some of the resources in Mrs. Glenn's library program that she uses to implement the collaborate competency is having an open and flexible schedule and calendar accessible to everyone, for co-teaching, using the library on their own, or for teachers to send small groups of students to work throughout the day. Other resources for collaboration are provided through a staff professional library located in the office, class sets of books, and book club books.

The way in which Mrs. Glenn includes classroom teacher collaboration within the collaborate compentency is by attending grade level and content area meetings as often as possible. These meetings offer an opportuntity to arrange collaboration with teachers, especially ELA teachers, on mini-lessons and co-teaching activities.

Some of the challenges that Mrs. Glenn faces when trying to implement the collaborate competency are time constraints and whether teachers are open to working with someone new (as a new media specialist to the school this year). She encourages ELA teachers to visit the library with their classes at least every two weeks; if this occurs, she considers that a win, however, she tells them they can visit as often as they would like (most ELA teachers have signed up to come on a regular basis already this year).

Explore: AASL School Library Framework Shared Foundation

One of the ways in which Mrs. Glenn is implementing the explore competency in her library program involves the availability of the library's maker space activities for students. Some of its materials and resources include knitting materials and books, Zen tangles, origami, blackout poetry, and cook books. The library website also contains regularly updated resources such as virtual maker space activities, virtual adventures, and Bookflix.

In addition, some of the resources in Mrs. Glenn's library program that are helping to implement the explore competency are book fair family events, social media (Instagram and Facebook) posts once or twice a week about library happenings (and texts to the principal with this information), summer programs she attends (like the Upstate Technology conference), and attendance at SCASL's annual confererence.

Mrs. Glenn is collaborating with teachers through the explore competency in the following ways:

• Ensuring that activities can be both physical and virtual when collaborating

• Implementing a variety of different technologies (not just Flipgrid)

• Utilizing personal and professional learning networks

• Being present in meetings and trainings

• Teachers' knowledge that the library is a flexible space - they can send small groups or individual students there and the library will adapt to their learning needs

Some of the challenges that Mrs. Glenn faces when trying to implement the explore competency is implementing technology as a tool; she feels technology is overused at this point because of COVID. COVID also creates a barrier for families to participate in school library activities.

 

Curate: AASL School Library Framework Shared Foundation

One of the ways in which Mrs. Glenn is implementing the curate competency in her library program is through a major weeding project that she undertook when she first began the job at the beginning of the school year. She will also run a Titlewave analysis a few times a year and create a collection development plan based off of it. (Titlewave is also referred to regularly to ensure that there are an adequate number of books per student, yet is constrained by lack of space). Mrs. Glenn often asks for students' book suggestions and buys those books; similiarly, she asks the library helpers for weeding suggestions.  

The resources Mrs. Glenn uses in the library program to implement the curate competency inclue Discus which helps students locate good research resources. She feels her district has a good policy for handling material challenges. 

Beside the avenues already mentioned (Discus, shared library calendar, and student library access), Mrs. Glenn includes teacher collaboration through the curate competency when she encourages teachers to ask her for their book needs. She fulfills these needs by locating the books through discounted resources or on loan (for example, she borrowed the Spanish version of a classroom book from another school).

Some of the challenges Mrs. Glenn faces when trying to implement the curate competency is teachers' willingness to collaborate. She can’t help them unless she knows what they're working on.

AASL Standards Framework Interview #3

Note: The following interview of Mrs. Jones, the Monaview Elementary school media specialist, regarding the AASL standards framework, occurred on October 18, 2021.

Include: AASL School Library Framework Shared Foundation

Examples of the ways in which Mrs. Jones is implementing the include competency in her library program is by trying to include all the students in everything, as trite as she admitted that may sound. She provides students different ways of answering questions, such as drawing, writing, and building. She often asks students open ended questions which enables multiple viewpoints to be heard among a class. Additionally, allowing her students to answer questions in their native language (the school is predominantly Hispanic), especially those who are learning English, offers these students the chance to be heard in a way that feels comfortable to them. Lastly, Mrs. Jones reads the students diverse books that include characters of different socioeconomic statuses, backgrounds, body types, and cultures. 

The main resource in the library program used to implement the include competency is books. 

The include competency that Mrs. Jones is implementing includes collaboration with students and teachers on all grade levels. She has collaborated with teachers to teach a variety of subjects in the library. However, she noted that teaching one particular subject, math, has proven easier for her in the lower grades. The lesson about child labor that she created with 4th grade teacher was a highlight for her as she felt it was relevant to the students, showing them how children their age used to live not that long ago.

The challenges Mrs. Jones faces when trying to implement the include competency is the fact that she does not speak Spanish, and therefore feels a language barrier with those students who only speak Spanish (thankfully, there are many students who are willing to translate). Other challenges to implementing the include competency are a lack of money and a lack of time. If she had more of both she could have the time to develop more in-depth lessons on inclusiveness and more resources to support these lessons. 

The additional comments she would like to share regarding the include competency is her disappointment for the backlash Jerry Craft's book New Kid is currently receiving in Pennsylvania and her thankfulness that she has not had to deal with similiar situations. 

Collaborate: AASL School Library Framework Shared Foundation

One way in which Mrs. Jones is implementing the collaborate competency in the library program is by encouraging students to work together in building items. Recently, for example, after reading the book Poncho Rabbit and the Coyote, student groups were tasked with building a trap for the book's coyote out of their maker space materials. 

Mrs. Jones will also collaborate with teachers to support their different units by providing supporting lessons and highlighting relevant library materials. For example, she collaborated with Kindergarten teachers on letters and numbers, 3rd grade teachers on a mystery unit, and 4th grade on a weather unit. She would like to collaborate more with the STEM teacher when time allows.   

The library's maker space building materials are the resources in Mrs. Jones' library program that she uses to implement the collaborate competency, including wooden blocks, Brain Flakes, Legos, and Magna Tiles. 

The collaborate competency includes collaboration with teachers through open communication. She often checks in with them to learn what they are focusing on in class so these objectives can be reinforced in the library. She also strives to meet their standards. 

Time is the main challenge Mrs. Jones faces when trying to implement the collaborate competency. Operating on a fixed schedule limits the amount of time she is able to talk with the teachers; students' library visits are desirable times to check in with the teachers, however, they are busy utilizing this planning time.

Mrs. Jones wishes she could do more regarding the collaborate competency. She feels teachers seem hesitant to seek out her help, possibly for fear they are giving her more work; however she welcomes their collaboration requests and even feels it makes her life easier as it gives her lesson plan ideas.  

Explore: AASL School Library Framework Shared Foundation

One of the ways in which Mrs. Jones is implementing the explore competency in her library program involves allowing students to learn how to use new items themselves that she buys for the library. For example, she bought the virtual reality Merge Cube program which she encouraged students initially to learn how to use without her help. Similiarly, she asked students to help her figure out how to use her new Promethean Board last year as they were already familiar with it because many of their teachers had already received theirs when the library's was delivered. Students have many interactive activities to choose from in the library, such as origami, puzzles and Rubix Cubes, allowing them the opportunity to explore their personal interests. 

Collaboration with classroom teachers through the explore competency occurs when a teacher lets her know what unit of study they're working on. She can enourage students to look through library books she has pulled together on that topic, providing collaboration between the two instructors along the explore competency. The large size of the library's physical space enables Mrs. Jones the ability to create collaborative lessons with classroom teachers that may not be possible in the classroom; for example, during a 4th grade class' space unit, she read the Hidden Figures book and had students land their paper airplanes on a hula hoop representing the moon in the library. 

Time is the challenge that Mrs. Jones faces when trying to implement the explore competency. The limited classtime of 45 minutes each week does not provide enough time to do all of the activities she would like. She feels she could do more if they were not on a fixed schedule. As the TAC in her school, her Chromebook responsibilities impedes the amount of time she could devote to more engaging lesson plans. 

Curate: AASL School Library Framework Shared Foundation

Some of the ways in which Mrs. Jones is implementing the curate competency in her library program is by highlighting specific books, for example, those that have received the Pura Belpre award and those on the We Need Diverse Books and 1000 Black Girl Books websites. A challenge she has had with this is matching reading levels to grade level standards; for example, she has tried to get books for the 4th grade Westward Expansion unit, but has had difficulty finding books on this topic that meet the majority of students' first to second grade reading levels. 

She is using Titlewave, book awards lists, students' and teachers' book requests, and suggestions from those she follows on Instagram to implement the curate competency. 

She implements teacher collaboration regarding the curate competency by emailing teachers for their requests before placing book orders. She is able to honor these requests when they align with the library's standards; her goal is to keep her collection at basic while striving to meet the exemplaray status for SC school library collections. 

Challenges Mrs. Jones faces when trying to implement the curate competency is time, money, and space for books. 

AASL Standards Framework Interview #2

Note: The following interview of Mrs. Beaman, the Mauldin High School media specialist, regarding the AASL standards framework, occurred on September 28, 2021.

Include: AASL School Library Framework Shared Foundation

Mrs. Beaman is implementing the include competency in her library program through different ways. For example, last year she worked on trying to increase her knowledge of  diversity by reading Jason Reynolds' book Stamped and attended professional developments on diversity. She spoke with students of diverse backgrounds to gather their  reading suggestions and learn about their life experiences. She practices an empathetic mindset that reflects her belief that we are all different.

The Reading Without Walls reading incentive she had last year educated students on empathy and celebrating differences. The program challenged students to read three books from the Reading Without Walls' list of criteria: read a book about a topic that, (1) they do not know about, (2) possesses a character that looks or lives different(ly) than they do and (3) is in a format different than what they normally read. 

A final way Mrs. Beaman is implementing the include competency in her library program is through centering her library's displays around diversity and helping to share the world's diverse backgrounds, for example, Hispanic heritage month, PRIDE month, and black history month

The main resources in the library program used to implement the include competency are displays and Destiny collections. For every display the library features, an online Destiny collection of curated titles and resources on that topic is created and available for students' perusal. 

The include competency that Mrs. Beaman is implementing is grow. 

The challenge Mrs. Beaman faces when trying to implement the include competency is the fact that she is a white female. Therefore, she feels she needs to educate herself on diversity and empathy, and recognize her own biases, before she can educate her students on empathy and biases. 

There are no additional comments Mrs. Beaman would like to share regarding the include competency.

Collaborate: AASL School Library Framework Shared Foundation

Mrs. Beaman is implementing the collaborate competency in the library program in a variety of ways. She is a member of the SEL committee where she has partnered with one of the school's social worker to create Mindful Mondays in which they share weekly mindfulness tips or tools on the school's social media outlets. 

She has collaboratively created a lesson plan teaching the Teacher Cadet students how to instruct with picture books. She has educated those students on how teachers can use the school library's resources through faciliating school library tours. 

Mrs. Beaman has created a social media presence with her "top notch" social media savvy clerk where they share pictures of the library's diplays and provide links to the corresponding Destiny Collections where students can learn more about the topics. 

Mrs. Beaman uses different resources to implement the collaborate competency. Her collaboration goal this year is to attend one of every departments' departmental meetings where she will gain teachers' feedback on what they'd like to see in the library and what the library can offer them specifically for their content area. She has highlighted her previous collaborations with teachers on social media. In the beginning of the year she provides teachers with library flyers that list the library services and past collaborations. She uses group work in her lessons, for example library orientations, to specifically address the think domain.

The collaborate competency that Mrs. Beaman is implementing includes the think and create domains. She tries to address the think competency specifically when leading lessons with students. She addresses the create competency everyday through the library's social media presence, by providing school announcements, and creating and sharing Destiny collections.

One challenge Mrs. Beaman faces when trying to implement the collaborate competency is how to address collaboration with students when they're not on a set schedule; she has to have multiple students in the library at the same time with the same purpose/goal in order to do this.

Mrs. Beaman said that the collaborate  competency is a big part of her time at the school. She tries to be part of any group possible so she can learn how to collaborate with administration, teachers, and all other departments; she feels it's important to be part of faculty council, SEL, etc.

Explore: AASL School Library Framework Shared Foundation

Some examples of the ways and resources in which Mrs. Beaman is implementing the explore competency in her library program is through the think domain. She tries to engage students in one on one coversations to help them reflect on their personal interests to help them identify books they may connect with. During exam time Mrs. Beaman offers stress relief activities such as a coloring station, Stick Together puzzle activity, traditional puzzles, and a building station. 

The grow domain of the explore competency is practiced when she reminds students when they are in the library that it is ok to make mistakes and/or not know the answer to a question.

The create domain of the explore competency is practiced when students have research based lessons in the library that require them to participate in self-directed problem solving. 

The share domain of the explore competency is practiced when students act on their personal interests to conduct research instead of the teacher directing students' learning. 

Being on a flexible schedule is one of the challenges that Mrs. Beaman faces why trying to implement the explore competency. With students only visiting the library as a class based on the teacher's schedule, the explore competency, which she feels requires an entire class, is challenging to practice. 

There are no additional comments Mrs. Beaman would like to share regarding the explore competency. 

Curate: AASL School Library Framework Shared Foundation

One of the ways in which Mrs. Beaman is implementing the curate competency in her library program is through class research lessons and the accompanying Destiny collections she creates to guide students' research. She also teaches students the importance of media literacy. Mrs. Beaman is also participating in a high school media specialists' book club in which they are reading the book, "Digital Detectives" about the importance of educating students in media literacy. 

A resource Mrs. Beaman uses to implement the curate compency is the online citation generator Noodle Tools. This reasonable $600 school subscription allows students a guide to accurately site their resources when conducting research. 

A challenge Mrs. Beaman faces when trying to implement the curate competency is Google's search tool. Students Google everything and trust everything they read on the internet. They only read the first paragraph of a Google search and use that information in their paper, unaware that the information may be inaccurate. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AASL Standards Framework Interview #1

Note: The following interview of Mrs. Farr, the Ralph Chandler Middle School media specialist, regarding the AASL standards framework, occurred on September 2, 2021.

Include: AASL School Library Framework Shared Foundation

Examples of the ways in which Mrs. Farr is implementing the include competency in her library program is through promoting diverse books. Social justice books are “kind of her thing” - a fact her principal shared that led him to believe she was the right person for the job. With a student population lacking in diversity, promoting diverse books allows her students to read about kids who are having different life experiences than them. After assessing her collection, and seeing a lack in diverse books, she is making it a goal to purchase and then promote these books. She is pleased with the diversity among the current South Carolina Junior Book Award Nominees, most of which she has read; she talks up these books, displayed in the front of the library, when students visit the library and during class orientations.

The main resource in the library program used to implement the include competency is providing students with the books to read about diverse viewpoints. Mrs. Farr has also considered beginning a social justice club at her school, modeled after Riverside High School’s club, Students for Change, in which students select and work on a community project together. As for the future, she would like to promote Banned Book Week, using the many promotional materials her library already has, and will seek advice from her middle school Listserv on how to do so.

The include competency that Mrs. Farr is implementing includes collaboration with classroom teachers through classroom book clubs. For example, two 6^th grade ELA teachers selected two carts of books in which the library possessed many copies. After sharing these books with their class, the students returned to the library to check out their selected books for a small group book clubs. Additionally, seventh grade teachers sought the former librarian's help in selecting books for their class book club last year; based on this request for help and the diverse viewpoints of the chosen books, it was felt that the librarian encouraged the teachers to purchase these diverse books.   

The challenges Mrs. Farr faces when trying to implement the include competency is being a librarian for the first time this year. While she taught elementary school for the previous 17 years, it seems transitioning to this new role is an adjustment, as any new job is; she feels the knowledge of how to best carry out the include competency in the library will come in time. For example, she mentioned not knowing what her new school community was like yet; perhaps conducting a community and school analysis as we did in SLIS 720 School Library Program Development would be helpful in her understanding of her new educational environment.

There were no additional comments she would like to share regarding the include competency.

Collaborate: AASL School Library Framework Shared Foundation

Examples of the ways in which Mrs. Farr is implementing the collaborate competency in the library program include library orientations and check out times. She has collaborated with ELA classroom teachers to arrange specific times for the students to visit the library and learn about its services through an orientation. She has also talked to ELA teachers to request that they set up regular library visits to check out books; for example, one teacher is set up to visit the library with her four classes every other Friday for 15 minutes. Mrs. Farr’s library website has its Google Calendar of scheduled visits imbedded with instructions to contact her to set up class visits.

One of the resources in Mrs. Farr’s library program that she is using to implement the collaborate competency is Destiny. She uses Destiny to teach the students how get online and find and reserve books. She then delivers those requested books to their homeroom teacher.

The collaborate competency includes collaboration with a teacher through a graphic novel project. A 6^th grade teacher would like to create a ComicCon-like event the two days before Thanksgiving. To prepare, the students will read a graphic novel about a famous person or event, then create their own graphic novel online. This teacher has asked Mrs. Farr for suggestions on which graphic novel creator to use; she has researched Book Creator and PowToons and is leaning toward the latter for its sharing capabilities. 

Mrs. Farr is also participating in a USC library research project collaboration with Dr. Green. The project is to determine how school librarians improve students’ test scores. Mrs. Farr is going to create a social studies unit with a 7^th grade teacher, while another social studies teacher will prepare the unit without a librarian’s assistance. Students in both classes will be administered pre and post tests and the results will be compared to determine which group of students better performed.

One challenge Mrs. Farr faces when trying to implement the collaborate competency is making the school view her library program as valuable. In fact, some students have never been in the school’s library before because it was closed last year due to COVID. She said it will take time to make the school’s community see the benefit of the library program.  

Mrs. Farr feels the collaborate competency is the most important framework to her. As a former classroom teacher, she feels the library can offer so much to the school as a whole. Building librarian-classroom teacher relationships will be necessary before the library will be viewed as a collaboration source. When asked why teachers don’t use the librarian as a collaborative teacher, Mrs. Farr responded, “It is a time issue. [Plus] the librarians need to make themselves look valuable.” The librarians need to reach out to the teachers and say, “Hey, let me help you, I have good ideas; let me help make your instruction better.” Once teachers experience the benefit of working with the librarian, they will want to work with the librarian again in the future. 

Explore: AASL School Library Framework Shared Foundation

Some examples of the ways and resources in which Mrs. Farr is implementing the explore competency in her library program in person supports their learning in a virtual environment. She teaches students when they’re in the library how to use the library website. For example, she teaches students how to use the library website to access Destiny, Sora, the library calendar, book reservations, and first page Friday recorded read alouds. 

The explore competency does not currently include collaboration with the classroom teachers. Mrs. Farr believes these activities can be done independently by the students online without the teacher’s help.

Some of the challenges that Mrs. Farr faces why trying to implement the explore competency is getting the information about the library out to students. Unlike other schools, her school does not have a news show, morning announcements, or TVs around campus. Therefore, she feels she needs to come up with creative ways to tell her students about library events such as book club and battle of the books.

Mrs. Farr feels there is a good network of school librarians in Greenville County’s school district. She is on a listserv with all of these librarians. Within that group there’s a middle school media specialist listserv of 13 librarians. The group connects together well virtually and in-person due to their small size and shared experience.

 Curate: AASL School Library Framework Shared Foundation

Some of the ways in which Mrs. Farr is implementing the curate competency in her library program is through teacher and student resources. While she is new to the position, she is still working on developing this competency for teachers but currently has a section on her website with Google tutorials. Her plan is to add the resources teachers need to her website as they arise. The student resources section of her website has the same Google tutorial, plus links to Discus and Greenville County Public libraries.

The library website and Destiny collections are the resources in Mrs. Farr’s library program that she is using to implement the curate competency.

Before implementing teacher collaboration regarding the curate competency Mrs. Farr needs to know what topics teachers need help with beforehand. Again, where she is new in this role, she feels this information with come with time.  

A challenge Mrs. Farr faces when trying to implement the curate competency is hoping teachers will contact her for help. Unless they contact her, she does not know if and/or what they need help with. This goes back to the importance of librarians reaching out to teachers to let them know how they can help them.