Incorporating AASL and ISTE standards in an elementary school library

   I am taking my first in-depth look at the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) standards as well as the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) standards. As districts continue to expect more and more out of school librarians, it's help to compare these standards to define our role in clear terms. While the AASL standards obviously only focus on learners, school librarians, and their libraries, the ISTE standards apply to a broader audience. They have sections dedicated to students, educators, educational leaders, and coaches. This leads me to my first question - how would you classify school librarians? According to the crosswalk documents between the two sets of standards, it looks like educator. I think a case could be made for educational leader or coach. Or maybe it's all just semantics and I should just move on!

    It seems like the most overlap occurs between the standards in the foundations of Inquire and Engage (in the educator category). This makes sense because both standards put great emphasis on learners finding answers to their own questions, developing a plan for doing so, and then sharing the product of those inquires in a safe, responsible way. The areas where the least overlap occurs is in the foundations of Curate and Include. For there to be very little comparison to the Curate foundation makes sense because curation is the domain of libraries. I was surprised there wasn't as many commonalities within the Include foundation. Although there are a few ISTE standards for learners that correlate to AASL Include standards, the ISTE standards didn't seem to put as high an emphasis on inclusiveness or diversity as I would have expected.

    As I was reading the article in Knowledge Quest by O'Connor (2019), I thought it was genius of her to create menus of activities for her students based around the AASL standards. As a teacher, I have created menus for my students as a summative assessment. I appreciated how explicit she was about how the activities correlated with the different domains and foundations of the standards while still being engaging for her students. I'm sure that took a lot of work and I hope that as I get more familiar with these standards that I can create similar menus for my students. 

Here is a document O'Connor created for the school website based on AASL standards:


 

Here is a sample menu she created for students that includes the domain and foundation:


Finally, I want to end with this video showcasing students interpreting the "Include" foundation of the AASL. I thought it was interesting to hear these explanations from their perspective.

https://youtu.be/b3az12LSunw


References:

American Association of School Librarians. 2018. National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries. Chicago: ALA.

American Association of School Librarians. (2021, January 18). National School Library Standards crosswalk with ISTE Standards for Students and Educators. https://standards.aasl.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/180828-aasl-standards-crosswalk-iste.pdf

O'Connor, M. (2019). Now serving... An appealing menu of digital literacy tools and resources. Knowledge Quest 47(5), 17-21.



Comments

  1. Mindy KimreyJanuary 22, 2021 at 12:50 PM

    Amanda,
    I absolutely loved the YouTube video you shared. I was so impressed with the students and the language they were using when discussing research, collaboration, and communication. It really shows that when teachers, librarians, and administrators are all on board with these skills, it can really shape the way students and society views differing opinions and evaluating information. Thank you for sharing it on your blog!
    Mindy

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sarah Catherine PoinsettJanuary 23, 2021 at 11:21 PM

    Hi Amanda! I enjoyed reading your post. You compared the AASL and ISTE standards well, and I especially appreciated your attention to the four domains of the crosswalk document. When I approached the ISTE and AASL standards, I too was taking my first deep look. It can be overwhelming to consider each set of standards and their implications in the school library, but using the four domains of "Think", "Create", "Share", and "Grow", we as educators can get a more effective "big picture" view of the skills we want to model and impart to our students. I think your blog post clearly points to the need for librarians to use both sets of standards to incorporate these values into our instruction. I appreciate your thoughts!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Eden MullerJanuary 24, 2021 at 10:15 PM

    Amanda,

    You pose a very good question in your post; I think it is important enough for a response! I think it is safe to say that School Librarians fit into both categories. When using the standards as an educator we have to think about the people we serve--students and teachers--and use them to formulate a thorough plan to execute. When looking at the ISTE standards form the viewpoint of and Educational leader we can look at the impact of the process. As a school leader it is the role of the school librarian, as an educational leader, to make sure stakeholders know the importance of using technology effectively and ensuring the school community is aware of the goals for the school. Just my opnion.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Amanda KneeceJanuary 28, 2021 at 8:46 PM

      Thank you, Eden! I was hoping someone would respond to that question or if I was the only one who wondered!

      Delete

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