Mission Statement

Spring ISD libraries are dedicated to empowering students to become lifelong and enthusiastic readers and learners; to become safe, competent and ethical users of information and technology; and to develop skills that promote creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and integration into community.

In case you didn't know it, we modern librarians are not the same old shushers you see in the movies or maybe had while growing up. We are teacher-librarians. In fact, we call ourselves Literacy Information Technology Educators. Lessons I teach include how to do research, how to document sources, how to select good sources, how to evaluate sources, how to be safe and responsible online, and how to create products for assignments using technology. I also collaborate with teachers on their lessons.

My philosophy is based on sound reading research:

The Importance of Reading for Pleasure

Our students will enter a working world that demands complex and sophisticated reading skills. The greatest things we can do to improve our students' reading skills are to allow them a wide variety of reading materials, allow them to choose books for themselves, allow them time dedicated to silent reading, allow them opportunities to talk about what they are reading, and create a pleasant reading environment. This is the most important task we have in education. Please join us in creating lifelong lovers of reading.

For information about creating readers, please read Stephen Krashen's research results summarized in an easy read entitled The Power of Reading: Insights from the Research which analyzes years of reading research. Everyone is welcome to check this book out of our library.

WHAT'S WRONG WITH AR?

AR does not achieve the goal we are striving for: to create students who love to read and who really comprehend on a higher level.

Accelerated Reader was introduced in the 1990's as a method of testing whether or not students had read a book. The quizzes check for recall of details. We know that reading strictly for details is not what makes a lover of reading. It also does not indicate whether a student has read the book. It merely tests for their recall of details. And, as much as we hate the culture of "the test," the state standardized tests do not measure recall of details. That is a lower order question. The goal of instruction as well as the state tests is for students to be able to answer higher-order thinking questions. That means a student who is reading for quality comprehension may recall theme, characterization, mood, tone, and a host of other subtleties of a book and completely miss the tiny details. We prefer them to come away from a book with growth in their minds and characters.