I love the Common Core. I love the focus on understanding over memorization, I love the spotlight on critical-thinking and problem-solving. I even love the way the math is taught so that the concepts are stressed, even if it means I can't really help my fifth grader with his homework anymore, since my own mathematics education was pretty reliant on memorizing formulas.
Something else I love about the Common Core State Standards is the centralized role school librarians can play in helping to make a whole school meet the Common Core State Standards in really interesting and authentic ways.
First off, what exactly does the Common Core State Standards Initiative say about the role of librarians in their documents? Nothing. Librarians are never mentioned by title. When the CCSS were first released for public comment in early 2010, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) issued a press release encouraging their members to examine the Standards and comment on them at the CCSS website. The AASL recognized the key role school librarians would play in the implementation of the CCSS.
Something else I love about the Common Core State Standards is the centralized role school librarians can play in helping to make a whole school meet the Common Core State Standards in really interesting and authentic ways.
First off, what exactly does the Common Core State Standards Initiative say about the role of librarians in their documents? Nothing. Librarians are never mentioned by title. When the CCSS were first released for public comment in early 2010, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) issued a press release encouraging their members to examine the Standards and comment on them at the CCSS website. The AASL recognized the key role school librarians would play in the implementation of the CCSS.
As students strive to meet the rigor of the Common Core Standards, certified school librarians will play an essential part in ensuring that 21st-Century information literacy skills, dispositions, responsibilities and assessments are integrated throughout all curriculum areas.1
Like other teachers, parents, and administrators, librarians did comment and work to make the CCSS stronger and realistic expectations for students. Since the implementation, the AASL and their parent organization, the American Library Association (ALA), has worked hard to help school librarians teach all students so that they are college- and career-ready, and are gaining the understanding they need as lifelong learners.
A school librarian is one of a handful of teachers in a school who work with students across grade levels, and across curriculum areas. With the CCSS focus on vertical growth and scaffolding, librarians are uniquely positioned to collaborate with teachers to build on the learning that has occurred in previous school years. In addition, the CCSS place an emphasis on cross-disciplinary learning, putting librarians in the central position to make literacy teaching happen not only in English Language Arts (ELA) classrooms, but also in math classrooms, science labs, social studies classes, and all other areas in the school.
As I see it, written explicitly into the standards or not, librarians fit perfecting into the Common Core puzzle, particularly well in the following three areas:
A school librarian is one of a handful of teachers in a school who work with students across grade levels, and across curriculum areas. With the CCSS focus on vertical growth and scaffolding, librarians are uniquely positioned to collaborate with teachers to build on the learning that has occurred in previous school years. In addition, the CCSS place an emphasis on cross-disciplinary learning, putting librarians in the central position to make literacy teaching happen not only in English Language Arts (ELA) classrooms, but also in math classrooms, science labs, social studies classes, and all other areas in the school.
As I see it, written explicitly into the standards or not, librarians fit perfecting into the Common Core puzzle, particularly well in the following three areas:
1. Collaboration
School librarians are natural collaborators. They work across grade levels, across disciplines, and even across media. They teach about books, databases, and the world wide web. The library is filled with fiction and non-fiction, biographies, poetry, graphic novels, and how-to books. Librarians must know something about everything that is happening throughout the school, and they work with students alongside the classroom teacher. The CCSS expect this kind of collaboration for the students as well. Literacy in the Common Core is based on reading across disciplines, texts, and media. With the emphasis on collaborating across disciplines and fields, librarians are already in the central position to make that happen.
2. Research
The Common Core State Standards explicitly list research as one of the skills students need to learn in order to be literate in the 21st Century. Librarians wrote the proverbial book on research. Librarians are at their essence information professionals. We know how to access, evaluate and use information for a variety of means, and through a variety of methods. While many teachers are capable of teaching how to do research, librarians sit at the center and can help teachers and students to perfect their research skills.
3. Media and Technology
Media and technology skills are embedded throughout the literacy standards in the CCSS (and the math standards as well). Just like research, media and technology literacy is a necessary part of the 21st Century learner's reality. Librarians are at the hub of using media and technology not only for gathering information, but for creating it too, which is equally important in the literacy standards. The CCSS demands that students use the internet and other technologies to publish and share their writing. An example from the 6th grade literacy standards states that students should, 'Use technology, including the internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others.'2 Librarians will continue the work they have always done to implement technology skills into student learning, only now the standards state that need explicitly.
From the first mention of the Common Core, school librarians have recognized the role they have to play in the standards, and in fostering the growth of students who are college- and career-ready, as well as ready for a life in the 21st Century. In 2013, the AASL, along with ACHIEVE, put out a joint action brief delineating the role of the school librarian in the Common Core Standards - aptly named "Implementing the Common Core State Standards: The Role of the School Librarian."3 This document lays out the many ways school librarians can work with students and other members of the school community to make true literacy happen across disciplines. This document also highlights the central role the school librarian has in the school as a leader, collaborator, and resource. It reminds me that there has never been a more exciting time to be a school librarian.
1 American Association of School Librarians. (2010). School Librarian call to action and AASL position statement issued on Common Core Standards. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/news/news/pressreleases2010/march2010/core_aasl
2 Common Core State Standards Initiative (2015). English Language Arts Standards. Retrieved from http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/W/6/
3 ACHIEVE and American Association of School Librarians. (2013). Implementing the Common Core State Standards: The role of the school librarian. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/externalrelations/CCSSLibrariansBrief_FINAL.pdf
1 American Association of School Librarians. (2010). School Librarian call to action and AASL position statement issued on Common Core Standards. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/news/news/pressreleases2010/march2010/core_aasl
2 Common Core State Standards Initiative (2015). English Language Arts Standards. Retrieved from http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/W/6/
3 ACHIEVE and American Association of School Librarians. (2013). Implementing the Common Core State Standards: The role of the school librarian. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/externalrelations/CCSSLibrariansBrief_FINAL.pdf