AASL Standard 1

School library media candidates encourage reading and lifelong learning by stimulating interests and fostering competencies in the effective use of ideas and information. They apply a variety of strategies to ensure access to resources and information in a variety of formats to all members of the learning community. Candidates promote efficient and ethical information seeking behavior as part of the school library media program and its services.

Project:  I-Search (Action Plan, Reflection)

Summary:  The I-Search is an inquiry-based type of research process that focuses on a student’s personal interests. The student’s intrinsic quest to discover answers or find a solution makes this type of research more meaningful to students.

Justification:  The I-Search effectively encourages reading and lifelong learning because it gives students multiple opportunities to explore their curiosities by accessing and assessing a variety of resources and materials. While the students are engaged in fulfilling their own interests, they are still involved in proper research procedures from developing questions and resource finding to note-taking and appropriately referencing sources. This highly adaptable research project is easy enough to teach to elementary students, thus encouraging students to practice the skills and strategies necessary to become efficient information seekers.

My I-Search was prompted by the arrival of my newborn son. Both my husband and I wanted to find adequate daycare for our son in a nurturing, loving, and intimate facility. My I-Search involved me interviewing several new mothers about their daycare experiences, reading books, watching informational videos, and visiting several facilities.

Project:  Order (Objective, List, Older Rationale, Rationale, Process Check)

Summary:  The order involves selecting, ordering, and processing books that are chosen based upon the goals, objectives, and needs of the school population and the school library media program.

Justification:  In order for students to have access to a variety of materials that will satisfy both their academic needs as well as their personal reading interests, careful attention must be paid to the books that are selected to fill the school library media shelves.

The materials chosen for the order were based on the needs of patrons at my partner’s middle school media center. The goal was to find current biographies to meet the new Georgia Performance Standards for the middle grades social studies curriculum. After highlighting key figures in the curriculum, we relied upon the Titlewave catalog and book reviews from reputable sources such as School Library Journal, Book Links, and Booklist to select appropriate works.

Developed in collaboration with: Laura Miller

Project:  Program Development and Evaluation Plan

Summary:  The program development and evaluation plan is a carefully developed instrument to help media specialist focus on the needs of the media center. An effective plan will allow you, the media specialist, the opportunity to access the management policies, procedures, and principles of the media center. Ideally, a five-year plan, which focuses on the school improvement plan and ALA and AASL standards, is developed and monitored periodically.

Justification:  A well-developed plan will help the media specialist provide resources and appropriate access to information. This will help foster and create a stimulating learning environment. The patrons will see the media center as an integral, functioning entity of the school community.

The plan that we developed was based on both an authentic and a theoretical situation. We based our theoretical plan around the context of my suburban middle school. The other elements of the plan such as the philosophy, mission statement, and goals were applicable to almost any media center. The development of this was an effective way of seeing how we would plan and meet the needs of our own media centers in the future.

Developed in collaboration with: Laura Miller and Leigh Martin

Portfolio

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