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
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.
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