Literacies

Traditional Literacies

Concentrates on building the love of reading and storytelling as the center of the library program.

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Cutting Edge

Builds reading, writing, speaking and listening, plus leads digital literacy initiatives across the school, local and global community to build a transliterate culture.

Tips About Literacies in the Library Learning Commons

Traditionally, the role of the library and its librarian was to curate a wonderful collection of readable printed books and encourage every patron to read and enjoy the collection. Promoting the collection included storytelling, booktalks, and book displays.

Today’s basic literacy of reading, writing, speaking, and listening can be enhanced in a wide variety of ways to encourage a lifelong connection to literature and informational texts. Here is a checklist to consider:

Extending traditional literacy by maximizing access to reading widely for all ages through:

    • Unlimited checkouts from the Library Learning Commons (LLC).

    • wide reading of high interest informational titles

    • Titles in a variety of languages and cultural values

    • Multiple formats on any device (ebooks, audiobooks, websites, blogs, news, etc.)

    • Student managed rotating classroom collections from the LLC to ensure something fresh and interesting in the classroom library.

    • An up-to-date collection that includes a variety of books with multicultural characters and themes.

    • Providing Reader’s Advisory for individual patrons.

    • Targeted access for patrons who may not have access to books at home.

    • Book bag programs for Pre-K-2 where nightly reading to and listening to two books a night is commonplace.

    • Borrowing and connecting patrons to public library reading collections.

    • Encouraging students to contribute their own creative work to the collection of the LLC for the enjoyment of everyone.

    • Connections to authors—either in person or via the Internet.

Creating Cutting Edge Programs to strengthen basic literacy:

    • Everyone learns by telling stories in person, through podcasts or on the LLC YouTube channel using video tools.

    • Speaking and listening are commonplace through multiple virtual book clubs, blogs, book trailers created for and by patrons.

    • Virtual Learning Commons (1) established to provide easy access to collections and tutorials with directions to a variety of sources that align with curriculum topics as well as award-winning and high-interest titles.

    • Design learning experiences that incorporate digital, media, and global interconnections in a transliterate world.

    • Literacy promotions and programming to create culture of reading such as Community Reads, (2) One School—One Book, guest community and expert readers, sharing across grade levels, schools and districts.

    • Global Read-Alouds (3) - Participate in opportunities to share in books read throughout the world and have conversations that build empathy.

While basic literacy is still a vital component of the LLC program, other literacies have emerged as school-wide programs that can be supported through the LLC by the LLC professional staff in collaboration with literacy specialists in the school. The administration and faculty often select an emphasis area to embed in the curriculum with pilot programs beginning in the LLC and then spreading throughout the school when ready. Here are some of the other literacies of current interest, but others will emerge over time.

  • Media Literacy: The ability to locate, analyze, evaluate and create using a variety of sources. Specifically, media literacy is the recognition and ability to discern, evaluate and question a range of media advertising, propaganda, conspiracy theories, fact vs. opinion, and underlying agendas of the creators.

  • Digital Literacy: Fluency with a wide spectrum of digital devices in order to protect one’s privacy, safety, and opportunity to succeed in the physical and virtual world.

  • Digital Citizenship: Learning how to participate and model upstanding and responsible behavior in the many social, political, group, and community channels in our participatory online media culture.

  • Data Literacy: Learning how to analyze and present effective messages using small and massive data sets that are available on the Web and those that can be created by our patrons.

  • Coding: The creation of programs and algorithms to do work, create apps, develop thinking and creative skills, and solve problems.

  • Transliteracy: The ability to read, write, and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media including print and online sources such as video, text, audio, and social media networks.

Topical Literacies

  • Financial Literacy: The ability to manage one's income and expenditures to not only survive, but thrive.

  • Economic Inclusion: Becoming aware and taking advantage of various government and other organizational efforts to bring everyone into the financial mainstream.the

The LLC professionals should be well versed in all the popular, cutting edge literacies. Their role ranges from providing professional learning on the new literacies, to teaching and leadership through social media for students. The LLC professional is part of a team that builds equitable access to books and information and tests whether such efforts actually contribute to reading, writing, speaking, and listening across the school. Similarly, they may work to embed digital citizenship, media literacy, or coding at various grade levels or into the curriculum of various departments. The cutting edge LLC professional expects a better result rather than doing one-shot instruction; they work across the school to see whether problems are actually being solved. In effect, the LLC professionals collaborate, create and lead in preparing our students for a society that requires transliterate, media-savvy, global citizens who read, write and create meaning across a variety of media.

Footnotes

Resources