‘Literacy’ and ‘librarian’ are words that are often associated with one another, especially when discussing school libraries. The connection is clear, the association is apparent, but a true understanding of what literacy is and the school librarian’s role regarding literacy is often more ambiguous. Standards provide a way to not only guide school librarians and their stakeholders, but also assist in providing greater clarity on librarians’ literacy roles. The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) both provide standards that are integral to empowering librarians to communicate and demonstrate their multifaceted literacy roles.
In Engaging Adolescent Literacies with the Standards, Jenna Spiering (2019) discusses how the new AASL standards provide librarians with an important opportunity to better establish their meaningful place in the curriculum and in student learning. As Spiering (2019) states, librarians’ “goals and expertise make them an integral part of the literacy learning and instruction that happens across the curricular areas” (p. 26). Adolescent literacy, Spiering’s personal research focus, encompasses many types of literacy (i.e. digital, media) as the field has broadened greatly in today’s technology driven world. What once was thought of as reading and writing, literacy now branches out into many areas. However, these “new literacies” as Spiering calls them are not fully understood or embraced by everyone. This is where the importance of the AASL and ISTE standards come in as they can “provide opportunities for engaging with these trends in adolescent literacy research” (Spiering, 2019, p. 26).
Due to the intergration of the AASL standards (as opposed to what was formerly separate standards for learners, school librarians, and school libraries), librarians and stakeholders can easily see the library’s role in student learning (American Association of School Librarians [AASL], 2018b). The four domains: think, create, share and grow, are threaded through every facet of the standards just as literacy instruction should be woven into all aspects of learning. The broadness of the AASL standards allows for literacy to take many forms, which in turn allows the librarian the freedom to explore creative and innovative ways to improve literacy and better support the general curriculum. The ISTE standards are not integrated, but are organized into separate standards documents (students, educators, educational leaders, etc). There are no common domains or foundations like the AASL standards; however, commonalities and connections are present within the different standards sets. For example, collaboration standards are present in both the student and educator ISTE standards. Collaboration is also a shared foundation in the AASL standards. (The crosswalks document from the AASL page is an excellent visual and resource to show how the ISTE standards fit into the AASL framework (AASL, 2019a).) Although the format of the ISTE standards differ from the AASL standards, they still help librarians showcase their important role in literacy by including standards that are current and take into account the “new literacies” that are a part of a global, technology-driven society. The ISTE standards are more specific than the AASL standards in terms of what educators should teach their students. The specificity of the ISTE standards might seem to some more limiting; however, they are still broad enough to be of use to all content areas. As Spiering’s (2019) discussion shows, librarians are vital to adolescent literacy and we need standards that allow librarians to both showcase their worth and exercise flexibility in their literacy role.
One of Spiering’s (2019) main points is that we “must address the multiple literacies that are a part of our students lived realities today” (p. 49). Both the AASL and ISTE standards address the complexity of student’s lives today. As aforementioned, the broad categories of the AASL standards, as well as their focus on the process of student learning instead of specific learning content, allow for multiple literacies to be addressed. Although more specific in terms of their wording, the ISTE standards also address multiple literacies as every standard relates to the technology field and the presence of digital content. Additionally both sets of standards hone in on key areas of literacy that Spiering also discusses; for example, collaborating with others, being an active participant in learning, and using multiple modes to communicate. Similarities among both verbiage and key concepts, like collaboration and creation, are helpful in not only using both sets of standards, but also in showing how school libraries are an interconnected unit devoted to similar outcomes for learning in a global society.
The commonalities among the standards further communicate to those within and those outside of school libraries concerning the changing role of librarians and the continuing evolution of information exchange. The world is changing and libraries must change with it, becoming indispensable collaborators and contributors to student learning. The AASL and ISTE standards provide a framework and a guide, but more importantly, they provide inspiration and empowerment to do more, be more, and have more of an impact than ever before.
References
American Association of School Librarians.(2018a). National school library standards crosswalk with ISTE standards for students and educators. Retrieved from https://standards.aasl.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/180828-aasl-standards-crosswalk-iste.pdf
American Association of School Librarians. (2018b). New national school library standards encourage students to explore, collaborate, engage. Retrieved from https://standards.aasl.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/0918_AASL_DAadvertorial_pages.pdf
International Society for Technology in Education.(2020). ISTE standards. Retrieved from https://www.iste.org/standards
International Society for Technology in Education.(2020). ISTE standards for educators. Retrieved from https://www.iste.org/standards/for-educators
Spiering, J.(2019). Engaging adolescent literacies with the standards.Knowledge Quest, 47(5), 44-49.
Hi Katelyn,
ReplyDeleteIt's great to see you again!
I also read Dr. Spiering's article and agree with her statement you shared about the new literacies and multimodal approaches not being supported by all educators (Spiering, 2019). The AASL and ISTE standards are a benefit for us as school librarians to be able to advocate for our role and its importance and value for supporting student learning and the different approaches to reading texts, now also in the media or in digital format. Using these standards to communicate with teachers in different grade levels or content areas can be used as an aid in showing teachers how we can collaborate and co-teach lessons that not only support curriculum standards that students are required to learn, but also our standards as school librarians.
Reference
Spiering, J.(2019). Engaging adolescent literacies with the standards.Knowledge Quest, 47(5),
44-49.
~Rachel Caughman
Dr. Spiering certainly sold me on the educational merits of graphic novels last summer and one of my goals in my library is to vastly increase the number of those. I inherited a library with maybe 30 graphic novels.
DeleteHer point regarding the use of real world examples (social media) for teaching literacy skills and a jump point for inquiry is great. Both graphic novels and social media help with interest level in adolescents.
I also agree that librarians can help students make connections with canonical texts that they may otherwise ignore due to a lack of interest.