During an interview with W. E. Parker Elementary School Librarian, Melissa Nicholson, I was able learn how she implements AASL National School Librarian Standards. Nicholson shared how she implements the Engage competencies with students at her school (M. Nicholson, personal communication, October 12, 2020).
Nicholson utilizes digital citizenship lessons available through Common Sense Education with all of her K-5th grade students. She feels that the lessons provide real digital challenges and dilemmas that students could face. These lessons lead to additional lessons about the ethical use of internet sources and databases available through SCDiscus.
Since many of the teachers feel that they do not have the time to teach digital citizenship lessons, Nicholson decided to work collaboratively with them to meet this need. Nicholson is on a fixed schedule, so her time with classes is limited to only thirty minutes. This makes it difficult to have in depth discussions, since the students must also check out library books during this short amount of time.
(A group of students show off their book in
W. E. Parker Elementary School's Library.)
References:
American Association of School Librarians. (2018). National school library standards for learners, school librarians, and school libraries. American Library Association.
Common Sense Education. (n.d.) Digital citizenship. https://www.commonsense.org/education/digital-
The AASL National School Library Standards competency Curate was the topic of discussion during an interview with Marcie Burnip, the school librarian at Strom Thurmond High School. Curating includes collecting and sharing resources, but also the ethical use of information from diverse perspectives.
Burnip shared how she implements the Curate competency (M. Burnip, personal communication, October 13,2020). She stated that her goal at the high school level is to instruct students on how to find and use any resource independently, whether the resource is for research or just curiosity, print or digital.
Some of the resources she used to implement these competencies are books, databases, and digital workstations. Most of the resources are books, like reference materials, nonfiction selections, and databases, such as SCDiscus. She also has collaborative workstations in the library so students can work independently or in a small group on projects. They are able to view projects on a large screen monitor that are connected to their Chromebooks.
(Collaborative workspaces in the STHS Library.)
Burnip states that collaborating with teachers at the high school level is somewhat atypical of the elementary and middle school levels. At the start of each school year, she sends out a survey to teachers for requests of topics they need for supplementing their curriculum. Much of her budget goes to support her teachers. She stated that she pulls biographies for the U.S. History teacher for a unit on influential Americans after the Revolutionary War, as well as a unit on influential leaders of the Women’s Movement. During one unit for the AP Biology teacher, she realized the reference materials for a genetics unit were outdated. She purchased the most recent volumes available to bring the collection up to date. Although she almost never has formal meetings to collaborate with teachers, she often answers questions when teachers pop into the library, send an email, call, or bump into her in the hallway.
The biggest challenge that Burnip faces when trying to implement these competencies is follow through. She said it is frustrating when after giving a teacher requested lesson on how to use SCDiscus to students, they are still conducting their research by “Googling” the topic and using a blog site or other untrustworthy site, such as Wikipedia. Another challenge she shared is that some teachers feel they do not need advice or guidance from the media specialist, which makes it difficult to discover what resources would benefit teachers most.
Marcie Burnip tries various ways to Curate resources for teachers and students.
References:
American Association of School Librarians. (2018). National school library standards for learners, school librarians, and school libraries. American Library Association.
The AASL National School Library Standards competency for Collaboration was the topic during an interview with Nikki Mock, the librarian at Merriwether Elementary School in North Augusta, SC. Mock provided insight and examples of how she collaborates with teachers (N. Mock, personal communication, October 11, 2020).
Mock shared some examples of ways she implements the Collaboration competency in her library program. She creates lessons for K-2nd grade students based on collaborative discussions she has with classroom teachers. Since she was a classroom teacher for many years, she works hard to implement competencies that will benefit students and teachers. She helps reinforce skills that students are learning in their classrooms. Below are pictures of some of the activities that she has recently completed with students related to books that she read about Fall.
(Student work hanging on a wall.)
(An easel with notes from a 2nd grade class lesson.)
(An easel with notes for a Kindergarten lesson.)
In order to implement Collaboration competencies, Mock works with classroom teachers to create lessons that encourage students to create deeper understanding of material. One example of collaboration she shared was a unit on figurative language. She worked with teachers to pull books and online resources and developed an idea for a culminating project.
Mock went on to say that this year, due to the COVID pandemic, collaboration has been very challenging. She stated that finding ways to connect with teachers and providing them with opportunities to create those deeper connections for students is one of her biggest challenges under normal circumstances. Teachers are so busy within their classrooms, so it is vital that we, as librarians, seek out connections and advocate on behalf of the library.
Advocating is key to collaborating with teachers.
References:
American Association of School Librarians. (2018). National school library standards for learners, school librarians, and school libraries. American Library Association.
During an interview with Johnston-Edgefield-Trenton Middle School Librarian, Sarah O’Connell, I was able to gain a perspective on ways to implement components of the AASL National School Library Standards. As I spoke with O’Connell (S. O’Connell, personal communication, October 13, 2020), she shared ways that she implements the Include competencies in her library program.
In order to broaden her students’ horizons, she takes time to discover their interests. For example, if a student often selects sports books, she tries to suggest books with a variety of characters or sports topics. She may suggest a book with sports figures with disabilities or about historical sports.
(Image of book cover, STEM in Sports: Science)
Providing a variety of books and resources that speak to a wide variety of viewpoints, backgrounds, characters, events, etc. is another way she promotes inclusion competencies. She also uses a lot of digital resources and databases to find items to support student learning and introduce them to different thoughts and ideas. She uses interviews, videos and documentaries, as well as, historical and primary sources.
O’Connell stated that she has had several opportunities to work collaboratively with English Language Arts and Social Studies teachers. Each year she works with a 7th grade Social Studies teacher on his World War II and Holocaust unit. They work together to assist students as they research a variety of key people from the time period including work leaders on both sides and famous victims like Anne Frank. She says that this always sparks a big discussion on why particular people and groups hold certain beliefs. She has collaborated on units pertaining to perspective and point of view with ELA teachers. As a way to further collaboration and interest, she creates book displays pertaining to what students are learning in their classes, such as Black History Month, National Autism Awareness Month, etc.
Implementing the Include competencies can often be a challenge. O’Connell expressed that it is sometimes difficult to get students to truly stop and think about something that doesn’t mesh with or goes against what they have been taught in the past.
Sarah O’Connell creates an atmosphere that promotes inclusion.
References:
American Association of School Librarians. (2018). National school library standards for learners, school librarians, and school libraries. American Library Association.
Augmented Reality (AR) is a great way to enhance learning. As defined by Goerner (2016) “augmented reality superimposes an image, video, or other digital overlay onto a view of the real world in real time.” Implementing AR into your library or classroom can be a great way to help students gain knowledge about things they have never experienced in the real world. Goerner continues to share that AR “encourages interaction, creates rich experiences, and helps students understand the real world, all while improving teaching materials and specializing content.”
If you are looking for a way to implement augmented reality in your schools for all age groups, then Quiver is one app to try. Quiver works with a simple app and coloring pages, most of which can be downloaded for free. Students simply color a page with crayons or colored pencils (dark markers may not work), then scan the picture using the Quiver app to bring the images to life in 3D augmented reality.
Quiver currently has four different app options; Quiver, Quiver Education, Quiver Fashion, and Quiver Masks. The apps are available via iOS and Android. All of the Quiver apps are free, except the Education version. The Education version has a one time purchase price of $7.99 for the app. Quiver Education contains content for various subjects from science, social studies, math, and language arts. Students can interact with augmented reality images to answer questions, manipulate images, and visit landmarks. Look at the videos below to see the possibilities of using Quiver with your students.
Resources
Goerner, P. (2016). Augmented reality. What's next?. School Library Journal, 62(9), 19-20.
Bullying has become a major topic of discussion with guidance counselors and teachers in K-12 school systems. Cyberbullying should be part of this same line of discussion. Cyberbullying has been defined as “willful and repeated harm inflicted through the use of computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices,” according to the Cyberbullying Research Center (Hinduja, S. & Patchin, J. W., 2018). Although cyberbullying and traditional bullying produce similar negative effects upon the victim, cyberbullying can essentially create a more devastating impact.
Google free use photo
Since cyberbullies can come from anywhere in the world, the bully may not even know their victim or they may hide their identity from the victim. The abuse can be widespread and viewed by people in an entire school, community, or around the world. Victims of cyberbullying report (Faucher, C., Cassidy, W., & Jackson, M., 2015), “depression, poor self-esteem, concentration problems, anxiety, stress, academic problems, school avoidance, suicidal ideation, and a range of psychosomatic problems such as headaches, and sleep disturbances.”
Google free use photo
Surprisingly, the number of reported cases of cyberbullying in the K-12 system is more likely to involve female students as the bully and the victim, while boys of the same age group are more likely to be involved in physically bullying there classmates. According to studies (Faucher et al., 2015), “in K-12, we see male students significantly more likely to be involved in face-to-face bullying and female students somewhat more likely to be involved in cyberbullying as both targets and perpetrators.” It is also surprising how many students don’t report cyberbullying for fear of added restrictions to their use of technology. This is why cyberbullying education and awareness needs to include in K-12 schools.
As librarians, we can work closely with guidance counselors and teachers to address the topics of bullying and cyberbullying. We can work with students to develop their digital citizenship and safety. Acting out or discussing scenarios about cyberbullying, watching videos, and conducting research allows students to gain knowledge and empathy. Below are resources for teaching students and providing information for parents about bullying and cyberbullying.
Faucher, C., Cassidy, W., & Jackson, M. (2015). From the sandbox to the inbox: Comparing the acts, impacts, and solutions of bullying in k-12, higher education, and the workplace. Journal Of Education And Training Studies, 3(6), 111-125.
Hinduja, S. & Patchin, J. W. (2018). Cyberbullying Identification, Prevention, and Response. Cyberbullying Research Center (cyberbullying.org).
Classroom teachers are always searching for ways to meet the needs of all of their students. Unfortunately, with the variety of learning styles and abilities of students in regular classrooms, this is not easy to accomplish. Implementing Universal Design is important to meet the needs of students with disabilities.
Universal Design refers to the idea of designing spaces, products, services, and more in a way that makes them as functional as possible for people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds. This differs from an accessibility approach in two noteworthy ways. First, it looks to improve usability for all, not just those who identify as disabled. Second, it focuses on finding one solution that will function equally for everyone, rather than fragmented approaches that divide users. (Spina, 2017, p. 28)
(Free use image of students on laptops)
Google Chrome’s online extension, Read & Write, is a powerful digital resource to provide literacy support to all students. The Read & Write extension is available to be downloaded online for each of these formats Chrome, Mac, Windows, and tablets. Read & Write is an easy to use toolbar that provides students with a wealth of resources, such as,
Listening to any document, PDF, or website using text-to-speech, which is highlighted to make it easy to follow along.
Text and picture dictionaries to explain unknown words.
Dictation to speech-to-text to help with writing and proofreading.
Simplifying text on a web page, like removing ads to and other items that may be distracting.
Provides tools to support students with dyslexia or other learning difficulties.
Screen masking tools to limit distractions.
Translation tools for English Language Learners.
(Images from Google Read & Write)
(Images from Google Read & Write)
Read & Write provides an optimal learning experience for all learners and coincides with the Universal Design for Learning. As Spina states (2017), “The flexibility built into this approach simultaneously provides a better learning experience for all students and offers a way for students with disabilities to participate without special accommodations” (p. 29).
These videos are great resources to introduce all the resources and tools Read & Write has to offer all of your students. The last video can be shared as an introduction to teach students how to use Read & Write and how teachers can use it with their students.
(Introduction to Read & Write)
(Read & Write - a resource for all students)
(Introduction for students to Read & Write)
Resources:
Hagan, M. (2017). Texthelp – read & write lets everyone read, write and express themselves
