How AASL and ISTE Standards Work Together
Educational standards are not a new concept and have been set by districts and groups to provide continuity and consistency across classrooms and grade levels. The American Association of School Librarians and the International Society of Technology in Education have developed standards to support the classrooms and schools they serve while providing the road map through the many layers of support they provide. These standards provide guidelines and evidence to why school libraries and librarians are still a vital and required component of today's, and future, schools. Even though the language of their standards may be from a different perspective, both groups of standards focus on the importance of collaboration, communication, engagement, and building knowledge across literacy areas.
When given the ISTE and AASL standards, librarians must look at these resources as partners to reach a common goal, as "adolescents [do not engage] with text in the same way that they had before--and that they never [will] again" (Spiering, 2019, 44-49). In reading Spiering's article, 'Engaging Adolescent Literacies with the Standards", she focuses on the "multiple literacies that are a part of our students' lived realities of today" (49). Spiering takes AASL and ISTE Shared Foundations and shows how they support each other, address the standards and how technology "ensure[s] access, the inclusion of diverse perspectives, and engagement in meaningful collaboration-are aligned with the focuses and best practices recommended in the literacy research" (49). Her article shows in practical form how the AASL standards "help school librarians establish effective school libraries, and provide goals to advance programs and prepare students for college, careers, and life" (AASL, n.d) while the ITSE standards support using technology to "accelerate innovation in teaching and learning, and inspire learners to reach their greatest potential" (ISTE, n.d.).
The American Library Association has acknowledged the need to provide "crosswalks" to show how the standards enhance and align with each other.
Link to ALA News:
Yes, I really enjoyed Speiring's article because I thought it explained the standards the best for someone like me who is familiar with ELA standards, but trying to grasp the Library standards. They are so different then the standards that I am used to. ELA standards want us to get students to learn a specific task like citing evidence. Library standards really seem to that but also focus on making the student a better person as well by collaborating, building community, etc. It reminds me of what Dr. Green mentioned in her lecture about leveled learning. Personally, I feel most of the high school ELA standards are similar. With being a librarian, you really are leveling the students to prepare them for using information even once they are out of school and moving into adulthood.
ReplyDelete-Jessica Quesinberry
Liz, thanks so much for your analysis this week! I appreciate the way you contextualized the use of standards like those put out by the AASL and ISTE in educational design. You're spot on when you say that both sets of Standards are geared toward the enrichment and responsibilities of ALL stakeholders when it comes to managing school libraries. It can be so challenging to create and sustain buy-in, I think, and that's a huge hurdle. Everyone has their own personal and professional goals, their own priorities, and it can be tricky to get librarians, teachers, administrators, and students on the same page about what goes on in (and as an extension of) the library. The standards we're studying do seek to modernize and maximize the impact we can have, just as you said, and the value of crosswalks that braid together the key parts of each set of standards make that work even easier and more impactful for us.
ReplyDelete