Candidates in school librarian preparation programs are effective educators who demonstrate an awareness of learners’ development. Candidates promote cultural competence and respect for inclusiveness. Candidates integrate the National School Library Standards considering learner development, diversity, and differences while fostering a positive learning environment. Candidates impact student learning so that all learners are prepared for college, career, and life.
1.1 Learner Development: Candidates demonstrate the ways learners grow within and across cognitive, psychomotor, affective, and developmental domains. Candidates engage learners’ interests to think, create, share and grow as they design and implement instruction that integrates the National School Library Standards.
1.2 Learner Diversity: Candidates articulate and model cultural competence and respect for inclusiveness, supporting individual and group perspectives.
1.3 Learning Differences: Candidates cultivate the educational and personal development of all members of a learning community, including those with diverse intellectual abilities, learning modalities, and physical variabilities.
1.4 Learning Environment: Candidates create both physical and virtual learner-centered environments that are engaging and equitable. The learning environments encourage positive social interaction and the curation and creation of knowledge.
LIS 654: Lesson Plan Remodel (1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4)
How It Aligns
Standard 1 of the AASL Standards focuses on our learners, their learning, and their environment. The artifacts I chose to represent this standard do so by using inquiry-based learning that utilizes motivation while providing tools and resources that promote a diversity of lived experiences.
"Multicultural literature opens up the world, allowing all students to hear voices both different from and similar to their own, both from within their own community and beyond" (Brown, n.d.). In my Passport to Multicultural Literature from LIS 617, I offer a curated digital resource that explains why diverse literature in libraries is so important, where to find multicultural books, and two specific categories representing minority groups; LGBTQ+ children's books and children's books addressing traumatic childhood experience such as gun violence and emotional trauma (1.2, 1.4).
My Lesson Plan Remodel from LIS 654 was crafted to provide inquiry-based learning using backwards design lesson planning. In the lesson, students learn about the Mystery genre through recalling prior knowledge and applying it to new content in active and engaging ways (1.1). “The AASL Standards embrace motivation as a critical component of inquiry-based learning...” (Small et al., 2012, p. 37). By motivating students to role play and work together to solve a real-time mystery of the missing library plant, the new content is being processes and acquired in a deeper way. By offering multiple modes of participation throughout -- individual work, group work, whole-group share-outs, graphic organizers, application to technology with LEGO comic strip creator, flashcard role playing -- all learners are welcomed into the learning to think, create, share, and grow (1.1., 1.2, 1.3, 1.4)
What I Learned
With my Lesson Plan Remodel of a mystery genre lesson (LIS 654), I learned the importance of differentiated and dynamic lesson planning. I do not come from a teaching background, but I was a young student who needed differentiation and activity in school. Learning about inquiry-based learning and backwards lesson design will be -- and has been -- of paramount importance to my craft as a Teacher-Librarian. My Passport to Multicultural Literature (LIS 617) not only enhanced my understanding of the importance of diverse books in libraries, but it taught me where to go for resources when curating my own school library collection.
Impact On Students
The artifacts shared here demonstrate a great impact on students. When students are prepared with the tools necessary to internalize content, they will flourish. Inquiry and backward design lesson planning allows for this. Essential questions are made clear from the beginning, guiding their journey with the new content as it is introduced to prior knowledge. With my remodeled mystery lesson linked above, my hope was that it would accomplish the value mentioned in Teaching for inquiry: Engaging the learner within, “Inquiry and motivation are teaching and learning processes that have full value when they are wedded to content...” (Small et al., 2012, p. 2). With the ongoing dialogue about the missing plant, students are inspired to wonder and become motivated to solve the mystery. With review and continued learning of the mystery genre students connect prior knowledge to newly acquired knowledge. With engagement via thoughtfully planned activities, students are further motivated to investigate, construct, and express their knowledge thereby leading to a deeper understanding of the genre. And finally, with reflection, they are able to self-assess their level of understanding.
By including multicultural materials in classrooms and libraries, we ensure children have mirrors allowing them to see themselves in the books thereby validating their own identities, histories, stories, and experiences. When they see themselves on the shelves, they learn that they are inherently valued. Ensuring a diverse, multicultural collection also offers children a window into other ways of living thereby expanding their horizons, growing their understanding, and building empathy.
I have already applied so much of these values in my current work as a Middle and High School Librarian in Washington, D.C. I have seen great impact when taking learner development and diversity into consideration, differentiating as needed, and providing a variety of learning environments and modes. I am excited to continue learning about my learners as I collaborate with my faculty and build inquiry-based, engaging lessons that take the whole child into consideration.
References:
Brown, B. (n.d.). A guide to selecting multicultural literature. Http://Www.Bu.Edu/Africa/Outreach. Retrieved June 26, 2024,
from https://www.bu.edu/africa/outreach/teachingresources/literature-language-arts/selection_guide/
Small, R. V., Arnone, M. P., Stripling, B. K., & Berger, P. (Eds.). (2012). Teaching for inquiry: Engaging the learner within. Neal-
Schuman Publishers.