Deadline near for comments on AASL Standards in Action May 26, 2008
Posted by Kathy Lowe in : Check this out!, Standards , add a commentDear Colleagues,
June 6th is the deadline for submitting your comments on the first draft of the AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner in Action. This document provides support for school library media specialists and other educators in teaching the essential learning skills defined in Standards for the 21st Century Learner. It presents Action Examples for putting Standard 1: Inquire, think critically, and gain knowledge, into practice in Benchmark Grades 2, 5, 8, 10 and 12+.
Visit http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslproftools/standardsinaction/standardsinaction.cfm to view the draft.
We have had very few comments submitted so far, but hope that many of you will take the time in the next two weeks to scrutinize this draft and offer your input before our task force resumes its work on the remaining Standards. Please don’t miss this opportunity to contribute to what will become the new “handbook” for our profession and make it the best it can be.
We look forward to receiving your commnets soon at StandardsInAction@ala.org
AASL Learning Standards Indicators & Assessment Task Force:
Katherine Lowe, Chair, Massachusetts School Library Association
Cassandra G. Barnett, Fayetteville High School Library, AR
Melissa P. Johnston, Silver City Elementary, Cumming, GA
Barbara K. Stripling, New York City Department of Education
Dr. Violet H. Harada, University of Hawaii
Frances Glick, Baltimore County Public Schools, MD
21st Century standards and Blooms May 12, 2008
Posted by Debbie Stafford in : Standards , 1 comment so farI was reading this article from techlearning Bloom’s Taxonomy Blooms Digitally. The article covers the original Bloom’s Taxonomy and Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy then goes on to discuss a Bloom’s digital taxonomy map looking at many web2.0 applications and where they would fit.
Then I was reading through the Standards for the 21st Century Learner in Action also mentioned elsewhere on the blog.
It then occurred to me to see if the two documents would match up. In a fast review it seems to me that creating, the top of the taxonomy isn’t there while remembering and Understanding are well represented.
Any other thoughts?
Invitation for public comment: Standards for the 21st-Century in Action May 2, 2008
Posted by Kathy Lowe in : Hot Topics, Standards , add a commentThe AASL Learning Standards Indicators and Assessment Task Force invites you to review and critique the first draft of Standards for the 21st Century Learner in Action at
http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslproftools/standardsinaction/standardsinaction.cfm
After releasing Standards for the 21st Century Learner in October 2007, AASL charged the task force “to develop a document to expand and support the new learning standards” with “indicators, benchmarks, model examples, and assessments.” Standards for the 21st Century Learner in Action provides support for school library media specialists and other educators in teaching the essential learning skills defined in Standards for the 21st Century Learner. It presents Action Examples for putting Standard 1: Inquire, think critically, and gain knowledge, into practice in Benchmark Grades 2, 5, 8, 10 and 12+.
This is the first draft of Standards for the 21st Century Learner in Action. It will be revised based on input from AASL members. A second draft, expected to be posted for comment in September 2008, will include Benchmarks and Action Examples for Standards 2, 3 and 4. You are encouraged to thoroughly examine and critique the contents of this document. Please email your comments to StandardsInAction@ala.org with “Comments” in the subject line, before June 6, 2008.
If you are attending the ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim, plan to attend the Open Forum on Saturday, June 28 at 9am to provide your input to the task force members in person.
You are also invited to contribute to Standards for the 21st Century Learner in Action by completing the blank template included in the draft with your own sample tasks and assessments. Examples you provide will be considered for inclusion in the final publication of Standards for the 21st Century Learner in Action. Please email your completed template(s) to StandardsInAction@ala.org with “Sample Tasks” in the subject line.
We encourage you to forward this invitation to your school library colleagues and to distribute it widely through your state and local school library listservs and blogs.
We look forward to reading your comments!
AASL Learning Standards Indicators & Assessment Task Force:
Katherine Lowe, Chair, Massachusetts School Library Association
Cassandra G. Barnett, Fayetteville High School Library, AR
Melissa P. Johnston, Silver City Elementary, Cumming, GA
Barbara K. Stripling, New York City Department of Education
Dr. Violet H. Harada, University of Hawaii
Frances Glick, Baltimore County Public Schools, MD
AASL standards Align, Embed or Integrate? March 4, 2008
Posted by Debbie Stafford in : Hot Topics, Standards , 2 commentsThe new Standards for the 21st Century Learner were announced at the AASL conference in Reno. Discussions began on LM_NET as well as the AASL blog as School Library Media Specialists began to think about the new standards. One of the first postings occurred on January 4, 2008 when Sharon Grimes posted “Reflections on AASL’s new Standards for the 21st-Century Learner”. This post to a discussion throught out January ending with January 31, 2008 Gail Dickinson: “Yes, the Standards are different”.
Some of the discussion points;
- We need to show how we effect student learning along with the need for assessment
- How the standards will translated into practice
- Are the standards too visionary or are they not visionary enough
- Focus on what is unique about the school library program
While not everyone agrees with the new standards we all believe that the best student learning will occur if implementation is done in collaboration with class room instruction, rather than skills in isolation, As I read through the different opinions and worked with my own thoughts, I came up with what I consider a basic question centered around terminology. Since I am better at questions than answers I will post the question. In meshing standards, whether AASL and NETS or AASL and subject specific standards, which “focus” would best facilitate the collaboration we want? The three are (with paraphrased dictionary definitions):
- Align – bring into line, adjust for coordination
- Embed – bring into a surrounding “mass”
- Integrate – bring together into a whole
- Align — you do your part and I do mine resulting in a finished project
- Embed – adding to add to the curriculum — in a garden you many not have everything and still have a garden.
- Integrate, I supply you what you need to complete your project.
Comments?
Excitement at Midwinter’s All-Committee meeting January 16, 2008
Posted by Sara Kelly Johns in : Standards , add a commentIt was so exciting for me to go from table to table on Saturday at Midwinter to see the work of our association being done by volunteers from all over the country gathered right next door to the extraordinary jazz violinist Regina Carter, the Arthur Curley lecture performer this year. She may have been incredibly melodious, but the murmur of voices and frequent bursts of laughter was music to MY ears.
Making appointments is probably the hardest work of the president-elect and president but it was obvious that people with passion and expertise were “taking care of business” as they worked on tasks they care about. Some were new task forces like the Promotion and Maketing TF, others were long-standing committees like Research and Statistics or Publications. Bylaws reviewed the charges and functions of committees as part of their ongoing work and began to review the charges of four new task forces: diversity, outreach to parents, international relations, and role of reading position statements.
ESPECIALLY noteworthy were the people working in the Learning Standards Implementation TF and the Learning Assessment Indicators TF; there will be an implementation plan by the June report with some interim steps and there will be opportunities for both input of standards-related lessons and units and opportunities for comment about the indicators and assessments. As I said in my comment on Sharon Grimes’ posting about the standards, there is much more coming! And major steps were taken last Saturday.
Thank you to everyone who is serving on AASL committees and task forces whether you are a newbie on your first one or are an experienced AASL worker. Our profession will make a difference because of you. Those new task forces? They need volunteers. I have some names but would love more. How? Go to the AASL home page, click on “AASL Committees” and submit the online form, especially the “special interests” section which is very useful for task forces. President-elect Ann Martin will be filling committees that start after Annual conference in June and I am still filling some openings and creating new task forces. It’s a real chance to give back to your profession whether you are at the next All-Committee meeting or a virtual member. You will learn as much as you give, I promise. Think about it!