STANDARD 3: INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE
Candidates model and promote ethical, equitable access to and use of physical, digital, and virtual collections of resources. Candidates demonstrate knowledge of a variety of information sources and services that support the needs of the diverse learning community. Candidates demonstrate the use of a variety of research strategies to generate knowledge to improve practice.
Candidates identify and provide support for diverse student information needs. Candidates model multiple strategies for students, other teachers, and administrators to locate, evaluate, and ethically use information for specific purposes. Candidates collaborate with students, other teachers, and administrators to efficiently access, interpret, and communicate information.
I taught a lesson in 693 on evaluating information sources when writing a definition essay. The class of 8th graders had to define a hero using real-life examples. This lesson required students to evaluate information for a specific purpose and required me to collaborate with a classroom teacher. I was not sure going into this lesson how much the students knew about evaluating information. They use computers and the internet daily, but have developed some bad habits in regard to the ethical use of information that need to be corrected through practice. While the whole class definitely understood the importance of evaluating their information, only about 70 % seemed to get the practical aspects of the process by the end. It is definitely something that needs to be practiced repeatedly in context with their classroom curriculum.
Candidates support flexible, open access for library services. Candidates demonstrate their ability to develop solutions for addressing physical, social and intellectual barriers to equitable access to resources and services. Candidates facilitate access to information in print, non-print, and digital formats. Candidates model and communicate the legal and ethical codes of the profession.
Most of my district’s non-print and digital resources are sourced through a partnership with the county public library system(ONEAccess). I have been a vocal advocate for this program in both practicums and at the school where I typically work. During 692, I taught students in grades 2-5 how to access these resources. ONEAccess is the primary option we have for giving students access to non-print and digital resources in our district, yet many students don’t even know it exists. I promote the program so that students have access to a variety of digital resources, not just at school but anywhere they can access the internet.The kids loved that they could find information and things to read from home and at school. The ebooks were popular with the elementary students , especially struggling readers because many of the ebooks include audio narration to help them. At the elementary school where I was placed for LIS 692, we saw a definite increase in ebook use after introducing the program to the older grades. Students were checking out ebooks to read when they had spare time in class and had already finished the books they checked out from the media center. Having access to digital resources correlated with an increase in student reading.
Candidates demonstrate their ability to design and adapt relevant learning experiences that engage students in authentic learning through the use of digital tools and resources. Candidates model and facilitate the effective use of current and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate, and use information resources to support research, learning, creating, and communicating in a digital society.
In the first practicum, I worked on a community service project. I helped the librarian and a 5th grade teacher with a project where students researched local community service needs, choose a way to meet that need and present a project proposal presentation to the teacher to convince her why that project was important. We used local newspaper archives and city statistics through the public library’s online databases. These students were excited about working on something in their community, but the real goal here was getting them to explain their thought processes: why this project? What evidence is there that this is needed or will help? It’s not all that different from the structure of an argumentative essay or speech, but more exciting and real to the students. Students learned about issues to their community while learning how to access and share information digitally. Since they were dealing with issues in their own neighborhood/city, we saw greater engagement and their ability to locate information digitally improved.
Candidates use evidence-based, action research to collect data. Candidates interpret and use data to create and share new knowledge to improve practice in school libraries.
My goal project for this practicum would fit this standard, since it required an evidence-based approach and interpretation of the results of the project. The point of this project was to see whether two common tactics for increasing voluntary student reading would work in this school, and we got definite results that one tactic works, and one depends really heavily on factors out of the library’s control.I learned how important teacher buy-in is to any new program or practice in the school library. The one class where the teacher encouraged her students to participate in the challenge did see an increase in reading; others did not. We won’t be repeating that tactic. Several teachers did buy into the book trailers and the kids seemed excited, so that worked much better, and I would absolutely repeat it.The book trailers seemed to work by giving students a sense of ownership about reading. They chose the books they loved and wanted to share, rather than what adults were telling them they should read. There was a social aspect to it too, because they got a sense of what everyone else was reading, and the books we created trailers for did see more use.