Standards & Literacies

Just like the school librarian has traditionally been narrowly conceptualized as the keeper of the books, literacy has traditionally been narrowly viewed as reading competence.  As Rheingold (2012) notes, however, “[p]articipatory culture, in which citizens feel and exercise the agency of being cocreators of their culture and not just passive consumers of culture created by others, depends on widespread literacies of participation” (p. 53, emphasis added).  

Viewed broadly, literacy means a demonstration or practice of competence within a context, and the contexts are multiple and varied as well as socially and culturally informed (Wilder, 2017).  As librarians, one of the key roles we can play is facilitator of such practice with our students (and, yes, as a huge fan of Paolo Freire, I love the implications of thinking of literacy as praxis and as something that we do with students and alongside students not for students).  Wilder (2017) specifically notes that we can help students both with understanding the contexts within which they are learning and living and with interacting with the variety of texts that they encounter, from traditional printed texts to data (Fontichiaro & Oehrli, 2016) to social media and email (Foote, 2016).

As Heather Thore (SLIS 757, 2018) notes, the AASL Learner Standards provide processes for librarians to follow in promoting such competencies with students.  We see this expressed in the common beliefs, specifically number three: “Learners should be prepared for college, career, and life” (AASL, 2018, p. 12).  As part of this common belief, the AASL (2018) explains that we librarians have to help students with “not determining what works, but rather what works, for whom, and under what set of conditions” (p. 12).  The specific learner standards within the framework then provide even more specific guidance about how to structure library instruction so that students develop competencies across literacies.  So, for example, if, as Wilder (2017) suggests, we “frame disciplinary learning with a local lens, exploring critical local issues” then we are reinforcing the key commitment of the Inquire foundation by helping students use their existing knowledge to provide “context for new meaning” (Foundation I.A.2) and to develop “understanding through real-world connections” (Foundation I.D.3) (AASL, 2018, p. 34).  I really like how standards emphasize our ability to use what our students already know to grow across content areas!

 

References

American Association of School Librarians. (2018). National school library standards for learners, school librarians, and school libraries.  ALA Editions.

Fontichiaro, K., and Oehrli, J. A. (2016). Why data literacy matters. Knowledge Quest, 44(5), 20-27.

Foote, C. (2016). Building success beyond high school with career- and college-ready literacies. Knowledge Quest, 44(5), 56-60.

Rheingold, H. (2012). Stewards of digital literacies. Knowledge Quest, 41(1), 52-55.

SLIS 757. (2018, August 27). SLIS 742 AASL Standards [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB2NKVzYZI0&feature=youtu.be

Wilder, P. M. (2017). Supporting adolescent literacy requires a focus on literacy practices in a local context. Knowledge Quest, 46(1), 32-39.