The mind-blowing (to me) concept of the crosswalk between standards was laid out in the article, "Librarian Reading Groups and Understanding Standards" by Courtney Lewis (Knowledge Quest, 2019). Being new to the AASL standards, and not being a teacher currently, I am just awakening to the different sets of standards that different professions follow. Lewis's article provided the background of different roles in the school following different sets of standards (teachers, librarians, administration) and discussed how her librarian reading group parsed the AASL standards and how they could apply more broadly and inclusively.
Specifically, the crosswalk between the ISTE Standards for Students and Educators and the National School Library Standards shows us how these two sets are similar and where they differ. As I look at the crosswalk, it is easy to see that for some of the 6 AASL Shared Foundations, the ISTE Standards mesh neatly. For instance, when I look at the Collaborate Foundation, I can see that for each AASL Domain, the ISTE standard has an equivalent competency, save for the librarian in Grow, and the librarian and library in Share. But for other Shared Foundations, there are competencies that AASL deems critical, that the ISTE standards do not address. Specifically, looking at the Include and Curate Foundations, I see many blank spaces where the ISTE standards do not address these competencies.
I think these two sets of standards can work together well with an administration and teaching staff that is open to collaboration. The crosswalks show there is plenty of common ground. In my mind, it also shows that the AASL standards address far more than just the technology aspect of learning. We can see that school librarians have more focus on the need to develop skills that include more perspectives, and help students curate more critically and thoughtfully. Librarians can provide opportunities for students to include more diverse perspectives in their information seeking. Librarians and libraries also provide space to form lasting practices for discerning quality information.
References:
Lewis, C. (2019). Librarian reading groups and understanding standards. Knowledge Quest 47(5). 36-43.
American Association of School Librarians. (2018). National School Libraries Standards Crosswalk. https://standards.aasl.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/180828-aasl-standards-crosswalk-iste.pdf
Hey there. I enjoyed reading your post. As a current teacher at a STEAM focused school, I noticed that the integration piece of the standards that are crucial to students learning as much as possible while at school. The students need our help as librarians to succeed in order to become a graduate who understands and uses technology effectively. I think the collaboration part was what stuck out to me. Collaboration is key as a librarian. Reinforcing the skills needed for students to be successful. I do agree that the standards for each profession can be difficult to navigate if people aren't willing to collaborate for the benefit of the children within our school. I appreciate your thoughts and agree with many of your points. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jennifer, you mention collaboration and inclusivity which are concepts that librarians of all kinds should embrace. The crosswalk helps me to help connect the library mission with the curriculum of our core teachers in a structured and assessable manner.
ReplyDeleteJust like you this article really opened my eyes and helped me to understand what it looks like for the standards to work together. I was having a really difficult time understanding what that would look like, but reading about the crosswalks made it make sense to me. I like that you talk about all parts of the school working together from the librarians to the teachers to the administration all the way to the students.
ReplyDeleteI am newly certified, and I am blown away when it comes to the many different languages that are used for standards in the educational world. I believe that you hit on a great point when you talked about collaboration. It seems the way that the ISTE’s standards support different sectors such as students, educators, and coaches. I have learned in my short career in being a teacher (since this past September) that some schools are great at collaborating, and some are not. No matter the case, collaboration is a great tool to unify educators with others such as parents and technology coaches so that we can do our job—teach the next generation.
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