The New AASL National Standards: Am I ready for the New 21st Century?

Presented by Cassandra Barnett

She is president-elect of AASL
She sat on the committee that developed these new standards

Purpose of the session:
To help teacher-librarians understand the standards
To show how we can implement these standards in our buildings?

Why new standards?
Explosion of literacies
Students mastery of multiple literacies
Complex societal communications structures

These new standards cover what we do as teacher-librarians. We do not know what kind of jobs our students will eventually do. Yet, we still need to prepare them for these future jobs.

There is a shift away from simply teaching our knowledge to our students. Instead we have to teach students how to direct their own learning and meet information needs.

21st Century Standards are made up of common beliefs, standards, strands, and indicators (benchmarks are currently being developed).

Everyone received the booklet with these standards in the MSLA bags. This is the key to understanding the standards. These are not national standards but guidelines for educators to ensure that students become information literate.

During the session, Ms Barnett went through the components of the standards. She explained the reasons for inclusion and compared them to the MSLA Standards.

Skills
Straight forward abilities that can be assessed when looking at students' actions and assignments.

Dispositions in Action
While you can teach an attitude about learning you can plan lesson and offer suggestions to help students truly think about their assignments.

Responsibilities
This may start in elementary school with book care. But it will grow into ethical behaviors, intellectual freedom, and safety procedures online.

Self-assessment strategies
With the abundance of information that students must deal with, the quality of student work has declined. Teachers must hold students accountable.

Ms. Barnett provided examples of implementing the standards in a classroom situation. These can also be located in you binder on pages 53-65.

Advice on collaboration
When you sit with a teacher to collaborate...have the teachers' frameworks and standards in front of you...and explain how you can help the teachers meet their goals for the students. Start small (one teacher at a time)...approach brand new teachers who may need suggestions and support.

Food for thought: What is one thing you can do in your library that will help you utilize these standards? (see implementation chart on page 59 and lesson planning template on page 61)